


Secret Service + School

by Imcalledzorro



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Counterfeit Money, Gen, Halloween, Hurt/Comfort, HurtMacGyver, Mission Fic, Recipe included, Recipes, Secret Service - Freeform, Thanksgiving Dinner, Undercover Missions, imsurethereareothers, posing as teachers, redribbonweek, sickMacGyver
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-01-06 01:29:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 78,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21218303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imcalledzorro/pseuds/Imcalledzorro
Summary: The Secret Service discovers that a rural school is passing a lot of counterfeit money. Mac and the team are sent undercover to find and stop the fake money, but simple missions rarely go right.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I am so excited to finally be able to post this story, it has been a LONG time coming! I want to thank Booksfallquietly for the super-super speedy Beta! And as always I unfortunately don't own MacGyver! Make sure to leave a review or kudos if you have enjoyed!

Angus MacGyver was just about to slot the screw in the hole when his phone went off; glancing at it he saw that it was his boss, Matilda Webber. She had sent out a group text telling his team to come to the war room for a debriefing. He huffed; this project would only take a few more minutes. She would never know he decided. Turning his focus back to the project, the phone again went off. This time with a personal message, ‘Now means NOW Blondie!’ Well crap. He took off his lab gear and hurried down to the elevators running into the opening doors, and almost colliding with one of his teammates, Jack Dalton.

“Whoa there Bud. I was just coming to get you.” Holding up his phone for Mac to see, “We’ve been summoned.” Jack punched the number in the elevator and the doors closed. Mac looked at Jack, the man looked entirely too smug.

“What have you been up to?” Mac questioned as he turned to fully face his partner.

“Moi?” Jack’s face was the very picture of innocence.

Mac looked him over, but couldn’t find any sign of, well anything, odd. As the doors opened Jack strutted out, with Mac trailing after him. They saw that both Riley Davis and Wilt Bozer were already in the War Room, and Matty was tapping her foot impatiently. “Nice of you to join us.” The sarcasm fairly dripped from her voice.

“Sorry,” Mac said contritely as he scooped up a few paperclips before giving his attention to Matty. Jack on the other hand just kept on grinning and dropped into a chair while Mac remained standing near Riley’s perch on the arm of her favorite chair.

“Dalton, I don’t know or care what is going on in that warped brain of yours, but wipe that look off your face and pay attention.” Jack just grinned bigger. With a sound of disgust, Matty began the briefing.

“The Secret Service contacted us asking for our help..”

Bozer excitedly cut in, “They finally need me to help protect the president? Or maybe they need a stand-in and heard about my excellent mask making skills!”

Mac, using his professor’s voice started in, “That could be, or most likely, they need help with counterfeiting money. Did you know an early counterfeiter was a woman named Mary Buttersworth? ”

Jack frowned, “Like the syrup?”

Mac nodded, “Just like the syrup, she would use a cheesecloth and iron the ink form one bill onto a blank paper thus creating a new bill.”

Matty took back over, “Thank you baby Einstein. Yes, Mac, they need our help with a counterfeiting case, which if everybody is done interrupting I’ll continue telling you about.” Matty sent a glare around the room. Riley held up her hands in an ‘I’m innocent’ gesture. Mac and Bozer both muttered sorry, while Jack just observed. So Matty continued “A lot of counterfeit money has been showing up at a rural school in Tennessee” Matty touched the screen and a map of the area appeared on the big screen. “The name of the school is, Lawrence Elementary School.” Another tap and the homepage of the school popped up. “The Secret Service has investigated, and they cannot find anything. So you’re going to go undercover to hunt down the person or persons responsible. We have your new positions ready to go, Riley”

Riley switched the view on the large screens behind Matty from a map of Tennessee and the school’s homepage; to a view of their new school ID’s. Matty informed them of their assignments. “Ok, Mac you will be filling in for the Pre-K teacher while she is on maternity leave.” Mac made a face but wisely didn’t say anything. Matty paused sending another glare Jack’s way after he let a few chuckles slip. The next ID popped up, “Jack, you will be the new janitor” Snickers came from both Riley and Mac while Bozer patted Jack’s arm in sympathy. “I figured you were used to dealing with crap all day so it should come naturally.” Turning to Riley, “You will be going as the IT teacher, for obvious reasons.”

Bozer raised his hand, “What about me Boss lady?”

Matty narrowed her eyes at him, “Do you know how hard it was just to get the three of them in? We got lucky with the Pre-K teacher and her going on maternity leave, then the IT teacher messed up her leg, but we had to promise the janitor an extended vacation to grab his spot.”

“Sorry,” Bozer muttered.

“Don’t worry, you’re going in as backup, to run surveillance on the school, and act as a liaison officer between the team and the bank. The Secret Service has vetted everybody, and no red flags were raised, so we will be starting from scratch. Also, a concern is the rumor that they might be involved with a cartel. So be on your toes! I’ll have a more complete dossier for each of you on the plane. You are wheels up in three hours. Dismissed”

Mac figured that with three hours that should give him just enough time to finish his project, run home for a shower and shave, and grab his go bag then he should just make it to the Phoenix’s hanger in time for takeoff. As they exited the War Room he turned left to head back to his lab, Bozer asked.

“Hey man, where you going? Homegirl and I rode with you.”

“Yeah Mac, and for this mission, I’ve got to get some new threads, cause I don’t think most of my clothes are school approved.” The last sentence was delivered with an eye roll.

Crap, he had forgotten that, and Jack’s place was in the opposite direction of theirs, so he felt bad about asking Jack for a ride. He signed wishing he hadn’t carpooled, oh well. Jack came up behind him and slipped an arm around Mac’s shoulder, and said, “If you’ll give Bozer your keys, I’ll bring you to the house once you are finished with your little science experiment.”

Mac opened his mouth to tell Jack exactly what he was doing, but then closed it thinking that it just wasn’t worth it, instead he dug out his keys and handed them over to Bozer. Bozer accepted then but asked Jack, “Don’t you need to head home, and grab some clothes and other items?”

“Nah, you should know by now that I’m always ready to rumble.” With a chuckle, both Riley and Bozer walked off towards the parking lot, while Jack and Mac headed back towards the labs.

“Thanks, Jack,” Mac said. “This should only take me a few more minutes I was almost done when Matty summoned us.”

“Don’t worry, that’s what family’s for Bro. You head down to your lab and I’ll grab my gear from the locker room. If you don’t meet me in the parking garage in 30 I’m gonna come drag you out of that lab of yours, capeesh?” Mac huffed a laugh, gave a thumbs- up, and hurried off.

Thirty minutes later almost on the dot, Mac appeared at Jack’s car out of breath from having run to make it there in time. Jack had been leaning back against the car, but he stood up when he saw Mac approaching. He made a huge production of checking his watch. “Nice of you to join me here Bud.”

Mac flashed him an embarrassed smile, “Sorry, I guess I needed to do more in the lab than I thought.” He then opened the door threw in his satchel and climbed in the passenger’s seat. “Home, Jeeves.”

Jack adopted a fake English accent, “But of course, sir. Any other requests, sir?”

Mac was laughing too hard to say anything. After Jack had been driving a few minutes he asked Mac, “So what do you think of our new assignment?”

Mac sighed and ran his hand through his hair, “I don’t know. Me as a Pre-K teacher? Couldn’t the 8th -grade science teacher be on maternity leave? Or even the Physical Education teacher, or a math teacher. Those I could do, but Pre-K I have no earthly idea.”

“Hey, you’ve always been great with my nephew. In fact, I’m pretty sure he likes you more than me.”

Mac laughed, “He only likes me more because I always make his toys work better. Toys that I should mention you buy him.”

Jack shrugged, “I’m sure you are gunna do fine, don’t worry. Well, I shouldn’t say don’t worry, I’d start worrying if they come at you with pitchforks or duct tape” Jack shot Mac a quick grin.

“Haha, and I’m sure you would be the one supplying them with these items?” Mac answered glibly.

“I can neither confirm nor deny that allegation,” Jack said laughing. “I have to do something to make those little ankle bitters like me.” Jack thought for a minute, “Maybe I should always carry candy with me and give it to any little kid that looks like they might kick me? Or I could just give it out to all the kids! Oh, my nickname can be called the candyman!” Jack nodded, “I think that should work just fine!”

Laughing Mac answered, “I think the teachers would frown on you getting their kids hyped up on candy.”

Jack looked like he was thinking about it for a second, “You might have a point, but I’m thinking about doing it anyway.”

Mac rolled his eyes, then leaned forward to turn up the radio that had been playing quietly. The silence was easy between the two friends. Pulling into the driveway Mac sprang out of the passenger’s side seat and sprinted into the house while yelling back to Jack, “I’ll be back quickly.”

Barging into his house Mac quickly passed Riley and Bozer trying to pack Riley’s new clothes into her regular suitcase, but they were not having much luck. Huffing a laugh he moved quickly through his room. He grabbed all his toiletries he would need for a shower and an extended mission intending to throw everything in his toiletry bag as soon as he was done with them. He had hurried through his shower, and was brushing his teeth when he heard someone beating on the door. He tried to holler back with a mouth full of toothpaste, but it sounded like someone getting gored, but Jack understood him.

“You can put out the fire there pal, Matty extended our timetable by a couple of hours. Something about the pilots, I reminded her that I am a pilot, but she just laughed at me, and hung up.” Mac could hear Jack clearly, so he assumed that he was lounging beside the door just waiting for him to come out.

Spitting out the mouthful of toothpaste he had Mac answered, “K, thanks!”

“No problem partner, so what do you think it’s going to be like being a teacher, like responsible for shaping children’s minds and stuff? Your old middle school teacher thought you did a good job with his students. so these ankle biters shouldn’t be too hard. Right?” Mac heard Jack pause for a second and wondered what he was doing. The only time Jack hovered outside his bathroom door was when he had been hurt, and thankfully the only injury he had had lately was a bad paper cut. Then it dawned on him. He opened the door almost causing Jack to fall from where he had been laying up against the door, and he leaned out to look at Jack,

“Are you nervous?” Mac questioned incredulously.

“No!” It came back too quickly tipping Mac off as to what the real problem was. Mac came fully out of the bathroom to grab his clothes and stepped back in leaving the door opened between them. “What’s there to be scared about? The janitors were the most well- liked staff in the school.”

“Really?” questioned Jack, “Cause it was mighty different when I went to school. Only losers talked to the janitors, and the older kids would throw spitballs at her. Why do you think I suggested the candy?” Even though Mac couldn’t see Jack’s face, but he could tell from his voice that he was doing that scrunched face, “We may have run her off my 7th -grade year, and two other janitors before my class graduated.” He sighed, “We were some little shits back then.”

Mac stepped out this time fully dressed and using the towel that had been around his waist to dry his hair. “Jack, I’m sure it won’t be like that. Like I said earlier the janitor at Bozer and I’s school was everybody’s friend and an awesome guy.” Mac gave Jack a huge grin as he ducked back into the bathroom to grab his toiletries. “In fact, he used to help me get some of the ingredients I would need for some of my science experiments.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure all of those ‘experiments’ were strictly for science,” Jack commented catching Mac’s toiletry bag as he threw it at Jack’s head. “I’m taking that as a yes!” Mac laughed and quickly finished packing with him and Jack joining the others in the living room.

Coming out of the living room Mac saw Bozer standing in the kitchen opening every door and quickly writing something down on a pad that he was holding. After shooting Jack a quizzical look Mac asked, “Ummm, Boze, what are you doing?”

Bozer’s head popped up over the counter, “I’m making a list, and going to check it twice! This is my second possible long mission, I’m making a list of things I will need in our kitchen to make sure we have good food. I’m not forcing you to have to eat cafeteria food unless I have too.” 

Mac shook his head, but Jack asked, “What’s wrong with cafeteria food?” He looked genuinely confused.

Bozer looked horrified, “Cafeteria food is horrendous, the last time I ate at my school’s cafeteria I got food poisoning! True story bro! Ask Mac if you don’t believe me.” Then he went back to taking inventory. Mac shook his head and walked over to where Riley was trying to zip her unusually full suitcase closed.

“Need some help?” he offered.

“If you sit on it maybe I can zip it,” Riley suggested looking frazzled. They had just gotten it successfully zipped when Jack come over dragging Bozer.

“It’s go time, grab everything you need and let’s head out” Jack ordered. It was time to head to Tennessee.

“All right the thousand dollar question is, who’s car we going in?” Jack asked

Riley stated, “Mine is still back at my apartment, so I’m out.”

Jack volunteered, “well if Riley and Bozer want to ride on Mac’s and mine laps then we could take my car.”

Bozer and Riley looked less than thrilled at that prospect. Mac sighed, “Fine we can take my Jeep. There should be enough room for all of us plus the luggage.”

Riley hefted her bag, “Hopefully there will be.”


	2. To the Crossroads of Dixie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With thanks to Booksfallquietly for looking this over so quickly. As always I unfortunately don't own MacGyver (or else it would be on right now, lol)

Mac watched Riley stand up, stretch put her laptop up, and then collapsed in the chair across from him rubbing her arms. “My arms hurt from trying to shove, then drag all those clothes into that dumb suitcase.”

Mac was curious, “What’s with all the clothes, I don’t remember you bringing all that much on previous missions?”

Riley looked embarrassed, “So after I found out that I had to pretend to be a teacher I downloaded the teacher’s handbook, and quickly realized that like 90% of my wardrobe would not fit into what they consider school appropriate.” She made a face and sighed, “So I made Bozer stop at a Target” Another disgusted face was made “and went on a shopping spree. I’m now the proud owner of several dresses, leggings with no rips, and various tops that are school appropriate, ugh.” Riley leaned back in her seat with her hands over her face. “I’m not looking forward to this assignment, like at all.” Then Riley’s gaze affixed on Mac.

“How about you? And don’t pretend like I haven’t seen you back here the whole time pouring over the mission files, and what I assume is a teacher’s guide or something like that.”

Mac felt his cheeks heating up. He sometimes hated how easily his teammates seemed to read him. “Am I that transparent?”

Riley laughed, “You transparent? NO! We’ve been in just about every stressful situation known to man, and I like to think I’ve gotten to know you.” Mac rolled his eyes in acknowledgment.

Again Riley asked, “So what’s bugging you about this mission?”

Mac sighed, “So you know I didn’t have the easiest time in school. Skipping two grades, having dad issues, and a deceased parent didn’t make me the easiest student, and some teachers were just horrible. There were years that I dreaded going to school. So yeah, it’s all playing a part in my nervousness.” Mac hated being this vulnerable, but talking to Riley felt safe.

Riley had leaned forward giving Mac her full attention, after a pause, she said, “Be the teacher five- year -old you needed, or rather you needed at any age.” Mac sat for a few minutes letting that settle in. Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, “Yeah, I think I can do that.”

Riley smiled at him. “School wasn’t the best for me either; I pretty much stayed in trouble. For a while there I’m pretty sure Jack or mom was in the principal’s office every day. And have you ever seen Jack Dalton in the principal’s office?” They both chuckled and turned to look at where Jack was sitting reading one of his gun magazines. “Then it was annoying, but now I appreciate the effort he made. So Mac, think we got this teaching thing now?”

“Totally,” and he meant it, well for the most part, but he did feel calmer about the whole thing. They then settled into an easy conversation that was soon interrupted by Jack landing in the chair across from Mac.

“Ok, what you two talking about back here?” Jack asked.

Mac was just about to answer when Bozer flung himself in the chair across from Jack.

“Y’all better not be having a team meeting without me! I take one little nap, and I get left out.” Bozer said.

Jack directed his attention to Bozer, “Don’t worry Bozer, they left me out too. Those two were having a pow-wow back here probably planning on how to take over the county or world peace. Something eggheads like them do. So who’s excited about Tennessee?”

Riley looked puzzled, “What’s so great about Tennessee? I thought you were all about Texas?”

Jack sighed exasperated, “Well I am, that’s why Tennessee’s so great! Both Sam Houston and Davy Crockett are both from Tennessee and the President who made Texas a state? Also from Tennessee! Plus hello, country music!”

Bozer snorted with the last statement, “You know what happens when you play a country music song backward?

Everybody shook their heads. “You get your tractor back, your dog back, your girl back, and your house back!” The group chuckled, and Jack continued his list of why Tennessee was the second greatest state in the land of the free.

The plane landed easily in the next largest city to the no stoplight town where the school was located in Five Points, TN, the crossroads of Dixie. Or so the sign read as they pulled into town. They were staying in the slightly larger town just up the road that had some homes for rent. Matty had rented a house for them to stay in, and their cars were waiting for them at the airport. Bozer was driving the tech van which would run comms and any video or audio that Riley could get up and running. Mac had a Jeep much like the one he had at home, Riley was given a Chevy Impala, that she was none too happy about, and everybody was thankful that Jack got the Yukon, and not an as he called it a ‘pregnant roller skate’ so they wouldn’t have to hear him whine about it the whole time.

After arriving at the house, and seeing that it only had two bedrooms it was decided that Riley could have her own room, and it was down to paper rock scissors to see who would take the other twin bed in the room with Mac.

“Ok, best two out of three? Bozer asked wisely getting the rules out of the way first.

“You’re on, son.” Jack shot back getting in the classic paper, rock, scissors position with his closed fist resting on his open palm. Bozer and Jack faced each other in the living room, while Riley unpacked her hoard of clothes, and Mac played judge for the two combatants.

The two men bounced their closed fists against their palm three times while chanting, “Paper, rock, scissors, shoot.” Bozer threw a rock and Jack threw paper.

“The first point for Jack,” Mac announced. Then the game continued, with Bozer looking very serious about his game.

“Paper, rock scissors, shoot.” They chanted again.

This time Bozer threw a rock to beat Jack’s scissors. “Now both constants are tied, winner takes all” Mac used his best sports announcer voice.

“Paper, rock, scissors, shoot.” Was chanted for the last time.

Bozer won by throwing paper to Jack’s rock while doing his victory dance, Bozer announced, “Well I hope your lumpy couch isn’t gonna be too hard on your old back now!”

Jack almost growled at the laughing Bozer and then went to sit on his ‘bed’. Mac joined him, “Hey if you want to switch, I really don’t mind. You know I don’t sleep a lot anyway.”

“That’s fine Mac,” he said as he lightly bumped shoulders with his partner, “Now if that had been a game of War I would have totally handed him his butt.”

Mac just indulged him with a smile, “So when are you going into the school for your intro tour?”

Jack looked at his watch, “In about two hours. The message asked me to get there a couple of hours before school ended, so I’m going to try to get there about 1 or so.”

Mac nodded his head, “Sounds good, I’m going to do a food run, and then we can set up a strategy before you head in. We passed a BBQ place on the way in so I figured I’d see what everybody wanted, and run out to get it.”

Jack nodded, trying to get a feel of how comfortable the couch would be. “Ok, I want the country platter.”

Mac looked at him in surprise, “You already know the menu?”

Jack opened his eyes, smiled a toothy smile and squirmed a little bit more trying to get comfy, “All country BBQ places have a country plate, with baked beans, slaw, and pulled pork, sauce on the side. The hottest they got!”

Mac made a disgusted sound and left the room to see what the others wanted, and maybe to get Riley to pull up a menu to see if Jack was right.

About thirty minutes later Mac dropped a to-go box directly on the slumbering Jack’s stomach. “Your country plate.” He said dryly.

Jack grinned up at him loving being right. Mac threw a glare, “it also included a piece of BBQ bread that you didn’t mention.” Jack just grinned, sat up taking the box into the dining room where Riley and Bozer were gathered with their food. Mac grabbed the drink carrier he had sat beside the door with the four huge drink containers in it. “Ok, I got Coke for Bozer, water for me, a fruit tea for Riley, and sweet tea for Jack.”

Jack’s eyes lit up and he made grabby hands for his drink. “Come to papa, baby,’ He cooed at the drink. Bozer asked, “Do we need to let you and your drink have a little alone time?”

Jack glowered at him, “You hush your mouth, and don’t be insultin’ my sweet nectar from the gods! It has been far too long since I have had proper sweet tea, instead of that swill that is served in LA.” Jack took his first sip of the drink and an expression of pure bliss come over his face, and he broke out in that toothy smile again. Mac shook his head trying not to laugh at his friend; he didn’t get the appeal of sweet tea.

After the four ate a bit they started to strategize. Jack started, “So I’ve been looking over the aerial maps of the school and I think I’ve found a good spot for Bozer to park the van. The school is sandwiched between a church and a pasture, and while it would be amusing to make Bozer try to fit in with the cows, I think the back lot of the church wouldn’t draw much attention.” Everybody agreed, and they moved onto the next order of business, “I’m headed into the school in less than an hour, I figure they’ll give me a tour, get introduced all around and given my keys and stuff. So I’ll use that time to scout out good locations to plant some listening bugs and see what kind of security system they have in place, positioning of cameras, and such. Anything else we need on this visit?”

Both Mac and Bozer shook their heads, but Riley asked, “Do we know the layout of the school? I couldn’t find much online, besides four different parts were added at different times, and other buildings were torn down. So that makes it much harder.”

Jack nodded, “Ok I’ll make a mental layout to write down for y’all when I get back. Anything else?.”

Bozer suggested, “If Riley has comms up and running we can cross-reference everybody you meet against the staff members that the Secret Service have already veted.”

They all looked at Riley, she quickly finished the piece of chicken she had just put in her mouth, “I’ll have them up and running before you’re set to go. I’m going to program them so that Mac, Jack, and I are all on with Bozer, but he can switch us to a team channel.” There were nods all around. Riley popped another piece of chicken in her mouth and grinned at Jack, and with her mouth full asked, “So do we need to set up with a course on cleaning products and how they work?”

Bozer jumped on board with the good-natured teasing, “Yeah Jack, do you know which end of the mop goes on the floor?”

Jack being the mature adult he was stuck out his tongue, and then shot back with, “I think it’s the end that looks like y’alls hair!”

Mac acted wounded, “Hey what did I do?”

Jack threw a fry at Mac’s head, “You were thinking the same thing, I could see the smirk on your face.”

Mac couldn’t deny the truth, so he picked up the fry that had landed on his take-out box, and popped it into his mouth. They quickly finished their lunches and cleaned off the table. Jack went to change from his usual tac pants into jeans but kept on the black shirt that he had been wearing.

Coming out of the bathroom he presented himself to Mac for inspection. “So Bud, how do I look? Like a school janitor?”

Mac laughed and spun his finger indicating for Jack to turn around. “I like the jeans, and the combat boots add a nice touch. Like ‘Hi! I’m the new janitor I’ll sweep your floor, and kick down your door!’” Mac thought he did a nice imitation of Jack’s voice.

“Hey, you never know what might go down! I might have to kick some doors down and I just want to be prepared brother!” Mac had to stifle a laugh at the earnest expression on Jack’s face. He took the time to analyze Jack’s outfit. He had on a plain black t-shirt, tucked into a regular pair of blue jeans, with the black combat boots to top it all off. He also noticed where Jack had his knife stuck down in his back pocket.

Mac passed his judgment, “I think you are ready to be the janitor of the year.”

Jack graced him with a smile, “Thanks, Mac.” Then turning his body to face the hallway where Riley had disappeared he hollered, “Ri if you’ve got my earpiece I’m fixin to leave.”

Her voice came back, “Hang on a sec. old man.”

Mac could hear Jack muttering under his breath, “I’ll make her think old man.” A second later Riley emerged out from the hallway with Jack’s earbud in her hand.

Dropping it into his hand she commented, “Make good choices.” Mac stifled a laugh at the movie reference, while Jack just looked confused at Riley’s retreating back. With a murmured, ‘whatever’ he stuck the earbud in and adjusted it’s fit. “You receiving Riles?”

Riley came back down the hallway with her rig in her hands, “Loud and clear.”

“All right then, wish me luck in my new job!” With that Jack headed out to the driveway leaving Mac and Riley in the house.


	3. It feels like the first time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Booksfallquietly for the super fast Beta work. And thank you for all who have left a review or kudos, they are a balm to a writers heart, and I am very thankful for each and every one of them! Like seriously they mean the world to me, so don't hesitate to say something!! As always I don't own MacGyver, too bad!

Jack smiled enjoying the freedom of the open road, more importantly, an open road in his second favorite state, his favorite being, of course, Texas. There was just something to being in the South he felt like he could breathe a bit better, relax a bit more, and he was just generally in a better mood. Smiling, he raised his finger in greeting to a passing car. When he was still new to the city his friends explained that in big cities nobody ever waved to strangers. As he neared the school he passed a couple of restaurants and the post office, but that was about it. Slowing down he pulled into the turn lane. Turning into the school’s parking lot he found an empty spot and parked the Yukon. The school’s gym was large, and placed beside the office complex. Upon exiting his car he located all the entrances and exit points that he observed. There was one into what looked like the cafeteria, then the double doors leading into the school and another exit on down. Noticing a lady approaching the entrance he hurried his step to be able to hold the door open for her.

As she passed through the open door she smiled at him and thanked him warmly. Man, did he miss this! The last time he tried to hold a door for a lady in LA he got a rant about women’s rights, and well she had gone on a while, and honestly, he had quit listening. Smiling he stepped into the foyer, opened the door leading into the office its self, where he was welcomed by a smiling blonde lady sitting behind the computer.

“Welcome to Lawrence Elementary School, how may I help you?

Jack put on his best smile, “Hey darlin’, I’m here for the janitor’s job. My name’s Jack Dalton.”

Her smile got even warmer, “I’m Janie, so nice to meet you! Let me call, and get Ricky in here for you. He’s one of our current janitors and will be the one to show you around.” She then picked up a walkie-talkie next to the computer and called over it, “Ricky” a few seconds passed then a long drawl of a voice answered, “Yeah”

“The new janitor’s here in the office.”

“On my way.” Came the much quicker reply this time.

She set the walkie down and told Jack, “Ok, we have your badge here and a set of keys for you to use. Ricky will be right here to give you the tour and let you know what your duties are. I hope you enjoy working here!”

Jack stepped over to the side to wait for Ricky, in a minute a bear of a man opened the door into the office and approached Jack.

“You must be Jack, I’m Ricky” he greeted as he stuck his hand towards Jack. Accepting the handshake he noticed the pleasant baritone of the large man’s voice. Ricky stood at least 6’4 and had a rather large stomach, much like Santa Claus, Jack’s brain supplied. He had short brown hair that was starting to grey, a goatee, and kind brown eyes.

“Ya ready for the nickel tour? I’d give you the ten cent tour, but I don’t have change.” Laughing at his joke he led Jack out of the office. Jack followed him, instantly liking the big guy.

“Ok, so here on the right leads you into the teacher’s lounge, and if we step through the other door we are right back into the office. This is where all of the offices are located. Straight ahead is the RTI coordinator’s office.”

Jack was just about to ask what the heck an RTI coordinator did when Ricky said, “Don’t ask me what it stands for or what she does, cause I don’t know. Now, the next office is the vice-principals, Mrs. Reaves.” Ricky stuck his head in the door then continued he walking tour, “And she’s not in there. So the door at the end is the Principal’s Mrs. Byrne, and the one next to it is our bookkeeper’s office Mrs. Angie.” They traveled back through the office, “You’ve already meet Janie our secretary.” Janie waved as they skirted behind her desk.

“Ok continuing our tour, on our immediate right also with a door connecting back to the lounge is our Nurse’s office. Don’t worry she has adult band-aids too. Cleaning can sometimes be a dangerous job.” He held up his pinkie finger so that Jack could see he had a bandage on it. “I’m proud to say I won that fight.”

“With an inanimate object? Bless your heart!” This came from a lady who looked to be in her late twenties with dark hair and a plump figure. She had a kind face, that looked like she smiled often, and was leading a line of little children from the library. “I’m glad we have you to protect us then.” Ricky laughed at the light -hearted teasing, and several of the children broke from the line to hug Rickey.

“All right, let’s get back in line, and show Mr. Ricky and his friend how we walk down a hallway.” With a wave, the group left in a more or less straight line.

“That was one of our substitutes here at Lawrence, You’ll see her around quite a bit.”

In his ear, he heard Riley, “See if you can get a name. As far as I know, the Secret Service just ran all the regular staff.”

“So how would I get her name and number?” Jack asked, then realizing that it sounded like he wanted to take her out quickly added. “I mean if I wanted her to sub for me.”

“Smooth Jack, real smooth.” Came Riley’s amused voice again.

Ricky laughed, “Well, don’t worry about it. Unless you’re going to be gone for a while like Justin is, the other two will cover for you.”

They continued the tour covering the sixth through the eighth- grade hall, the miscellaneous janitor’s closets, and all the other nooks and crannies of the school. Jack made sure to note where the Pre-K room and Computer Lab was. Finally, they ended the tour in the Farside teacher’s lounge that also tripled as a supply closet and ESP room.

“They teach ESP in this school?” Jack confusedly asked.

Ricky broke out in loud guffaws, after calming down he wiped his eyes and answered, “No that stands for the Extended School Program. It’s an afterschool program.”

Jack felt only slightly ashamed. Ricky motioned for Jack to take a seat at one of the two long tables set up in the room for the teachers to eat at. Then he moved over to a large refrigerator. “Do you want anything to drink?”

Never one to pass up a free drink Jack answered, “Sure! What ya got?”

“Cokes or water.” Was the reply.

“What kind of cokes do you have?” Thinking that a nice Sun Drop or Coke would be good right about now.

Bending over to peruse the selection in the fridge Ricky answered, “Well we got some Mountain Lightening, Dr. Pepper, and RC in here.”

Jack smiled he hadn’t had a good old fashioned RC since he was a kid back in Texas. “I’ll take the RC.”

Ricky grabbed both his and Jack’s drink choices and went to sit across from Jack. “Now if you want some peanuts for that RC you’ll have to get them from the vendin’ machine.” Both men shared a laugh. “OK, so the tour’s complete and school’s gunna be lettin out here in a few minutes so I’ma gunna go over some of the duties you will be expected to do. First and foremost, keep your walkie-talkie near you. We will be all over the building and it is the easiest way to get ahold of a janitor. Second, do whatever the school office asks of you. We escort students, sometimes step in as security, deliver packages, etc. This job is a lot more than just sweeping and cleaning toilets, but we will be doing plenty of both! Oh, I forgot to tell you we make our own hours. As long as you get eight hours a day you are fine. I usually like to get here early around 5:30 so I can leave about 1:30, Bill, well he likes to do 7 to 3. I’ll get there tomorrow about 7 so Bill and I can help you get acclimated. One of our most important jobs is to be seen as a smiling face for kids. I’ve had some students who will barely acknowledge their teacher but love to come ‘help’ me. I feel like I am here to try to make a difference in these children’s lives.”

‘Dang’, Jack thought, this might be tougher than he had anticipated! Ricky continued, “Ok to start with I’m going to give you a list of room assignments, and when the best time to sweep and empty the trash is for each classroom. At the end of the day, you’ll be needed to help with the car rider line, but that’s pretty easy.” Just then a bell buzzed signifying the end of the day. Ricky stood up and tossed his empty can in the recycling can, turned and asked Jack, “I think tomorrow I’ll just have you shadow me so the kids and staff can get to know you and you’ll get the schedule. So you have any questions?”

Ricky looked at Jack expectantly, and Jack had just opened his mouth to ask a question when over the intercom came a ladies voice, “Good afternoon Lawrence family, I hope you’ve had a good day! I’m happy to announce that the High School’s lady volleyball team has advanced to the state semi-finals…” The voice went on, but Ricky talked over her, “That’s the principal doing the end of the day announcements and which kids are bus and car riders.”

Jack’s puzzlement must have shown, because Ricky chucked and clarified, “If a child has to change how they get home or have a different person picking them up the parents will usually call the office, and it is announced at the end of the day. Now, I’ve gotta go and help with the car rider line. You can follow me and see how it is or go ahead and leave whichever one works best for you.” With that, he walked out the door. Jack wanted to go back to the house but figured that while he was here might as well get to know the local citizenry, and he hurried to follow Ricky.

Ricky was stopped just beyond the doorway talking to the same plump substitute from earlier, but this time she only had about 8 students with her. “Hey come here, I want to introduce you,” Ricky instructed. Jack hurried over and offered his hand, while Ricky provided the introductions, “This here is one of Lawrence’s top subs, Marie Presson. Marie I’d like to introduce you to our new janitor, Jack Dalton.” Holding up her hands to show that they were full of a lunch bag, a book, a clipboard, and a walkie, she just waved instead of trying to shake hands.

“It’s nice to meet you.” Then turning to the kids she instructed them, “Let’s tell Mr. Jack hi?” She phrased it as a question, seeming to ask if he went by that or Mr. Dalton. The children looked at him and most of them mumbled some form of hi. Marie rolled her eyes and started walking backwards the children following her. “Casi’s already in the gym with the car riders. See ya tomorrow.” Then with a heel spin turned around and lead the children off.

At Jack’s quizzical look Ricky clarified, “Casi’s my wife, and the other Pre-K teacher. I’ll introduce you tomorrow; we usually have lunch in her room while the kids are at activity. All right come on and I’ll show you what car rider duty is like.” They had only gone a few steps with the voice came on again and announced, “Car riders can be dismissed, and bus 72. Bus 72.” Then a hoard of children swept down upon Jack all jockeying to be first only to be brought to a screeching halt as Ricky bellowed, “Walk please.” Ricky threw a grin in Jack’s direction and told him, “That’s how it’s done! Now Let’s go tame some more wild beasts.”

Jack never thought he would be so happy to hear complete silence, The kids were great in the car rider line, heck the teacher’s threatened them to death, but it was still loud. The walkie was constantly calling for kids, kids were yelling as they got into their cars, and staff members were talking. So he was enjoying his drive back to the house. Upon pulling into the driveway he noticed that Riley’s car was gone, but upon entering she was sitting at the table typing away.

“Where’s your car? Bozer and Mac are doing a grocery run. It might be awhile Bozer was bitching about the lack of good grocery stores in the area, so who knows how far they might go.”

“Well if Mac has any say not very far.”

“True.” Riley acquiesced never once taking her eyes from her computer. Sometimes Jack just wanted to throw that thing out the window, and sometimes it saved his life, so he figured it was a fair trade.

“Since you’re wrapped up…” he made a frustrated hand motion, “with whatever. I’m going to go sketch a layout of the school’

Riley looked very focused so Jack had to add, “I’m also gunna call and talk to Billy to see what he knows maybe he’ll let me join them!”

She made an agreeable sound making Jack roll his eyes and leave the room in search of some paper. Jack moved down the hall to Mac and Bozer’s room knowing that his young charge almost always carried a notebook with him for all of his random ideas that he gets. Sure enough, a simple one- subject notebook was sitting on top of Mac’s duffle. Liberating it he made his way back to his ‘bedroom’ aka the couch and sat down to draw a map of the school. As soon as he found a writing utensil that was. Muttering under his breath about how stupid he was sometimes he ambled back down to Mac’s room to pull one of the pens he kept stanched in his bag. Finally getting back to the couch he got to work.

After working on the project for about thirty minutes he was done. He had to admit it looked pretty good! Looking around he tried to find something to do. Riley was still on her laptop, Mac and Bozer were still gone, there wasn’t a TV much to his disappointment. So he decided to get a feel of the outside of the house. That didn’t take long, so he decided another nap was in order. Like he was taught in the Army always sleep when or where you can because you never know when your next sleep might be.

Jack was again jolted awake by a bag being tossed on him. This time it was a grocery bag, in it his favorite chips. Looking up he saw Bozer standing across from him.

“Need any help?” he offered as he rubbed his eyes open.

“We sure do,” Mac said as he entered with both arms full of groceries. “Bozer tried to buy the store out. Matty is going to be happy when she sees the bill for this!”

Bozer tossed a sour look MacGyver’s way, and stalked back out to the vehicle, turning to Jack who was making his way to the door. “I told him he didn’t have to make every meal here that sometimes we could eat at the school. He didn’t like that too much.” Mac just shrugged his shoulders and headed back out behind Bozer.

After the third trip, Jack was convinced that there was indeed no groceries left in that whole store. Jack was just about to ask Bozer what in tarnation was he was going to do with all the groceries, but Bozer answered him before he could ask.

“Now if y’all want some supper go away. I need my space to whip up a meal fit for well three undercover government agents.”

The three readily agreed and retired to the living room. An hour later heavenly smells were wafting from the kitchen and the three of them were getting hungry.

“Come on Bozer, is it done yet?” Riley asked, again.

Bozer hollered back, “For the last time it will be done in about five minutes. Why don’t y’all be cleaning off the table, setting it, and getting drinks instead of bugging me?”

With a growl, Riley pushed off the couch and stalked towards the table. “I think our girl’s getting hangry.” Laughed Jack. Mac shook his head and went to help Riley. A few minutes later Bozer was serving them a feast including a salad, pan- roasted chicken, crispy potato wedges, and a chocolate cobbler for dessert.

Everybody dug in enjoying the delicious flavors. Jack finally broke the silence, “Bozer you really outdid yourself this time. It’s amazing!” Bozer glowed with pride. “I’m hoping there will be enough leftovers for some lunches tomorrow.”

Mac sighed and rolled his eyes. Jack and Riley kept on looking between the two, “Ok what gives?” Riley questioned. The two friends fought a war with just their eyes; Bozer must have lost because Mac started explaining.

“So when we were in the sixth grade Bozer was convinced that the lunch lady was poisoning his food.”

“That’s because she was! I kept on having to run for the bathroom after lunch every day.” Bozer interrupted.

Mac sighed and continued, “It got to the point that we would have to switch trays after going through- line.”

“But the old bat figured it out, and would give my poisoned food to you so that I would get the right tray.” Bozer countered.

“Mrs. Bozer got tired of it and just started sending us both a lunch because Boze convinced her that if I was still getting the school lunch she would start poisoning me.” Mac threw a withering look at his best friend.

“Hey man, I didn’t get sick anymore and you got some excellent lunches out of the deal.” Bozer pointed out.

Mac grinned, “You do have a point there. Those brownies…”

“Y’all my mamma’s brownies are … well, there are no words to describe just how delicious those were, and if we got a good grade she would give us an extra- large piece!”

Mac looked completive, “Say Boze, think you could whip up some of those brownies for our lunches? I promise to quit hassling you!”

Bozer didn’t hesitate a second, “Done!”

“Now that y’all two are done haggling over desserts, want to go over the plan for tomorrow?” Riley asked.

Jack finished swallowing his last bit of food, “Ok, so I’m headed in first thing in the morning, then Mac will show up about.” He trailed off thinking about what time would be best. “I guess about noon? Then Riley will show up around 2:00 and there will be a staff meeting at around 3:15. If it’s the usual type of staff meetings the principal will drone on till about 4 or so then we will be on our way back here.”

Everybody agreed, and Riley said, “So I haven’t been able to get on their school network, so I’ll have to access it from the inside. I’ll let you know if it has to be an administrator’s computer. If it does then we’ll have to break into the principal’s office.” The last part was delivered with a grin.

Jack groaned, “Riley, we are not breaking into the principal’s office because of what happened last time!”

“Oh come on Jack he deserved it!”

“He may have, but you knew better,” Jack said sternly.

“Ok, one of you needs to fill us in.” Demanded Mac.

“We’re not talking about it,” Jack said at the same time Riley said. “Never happening.”

“Oh come on!” Mac exclaimed. “You can’t drop a hint like that, and not back it up with the story! That’s just wrong!” Riley and Jack both sent him withering looks

“Ok, let’s move on,” Bozer stated trying to steer them away from that topic. Jack and Riley kept on staring at each other neither one wanting to be the first to budge. So he tried again. “What time do you think I should come over to the school? Should it be when Jack goes over or later when Mac or Riley goes over?” That did the trick of getting them back on task. After that, they got the whole day planned out. Including when Bozer would head to the bank to get what they had about the counterfeit bills.

“Should I introduce myself as Agent Bozer of the Secret Service. I was born to play that role.” Bozer said excitedly.

Mac stared him down, “Yea, and let me see your Secret Service credentials, Agent Bozer.” Bozer stuck out his tongue at his best friend.

“Whoa, there children. Just introduce yourself as a government agent, and show them the non-descript badge that Matty gave you for this mission, and if they say anything then just have them call Matty. Works every time.” Jack announced with a grin. “I remember an op in Arizona, where the locals just would not cooperate with Mac and me no matter what we did. So I had them call Matty, and I swear this guy jumps to attention! After that, he was one of the most helpful people I’ve ever dealt with.”

Mac shook his head, “I’ve got a better one that than!” After that, the discussion spiraled into who had the better intimidating Matty story.


	4. Mac's first day of school

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Booksfallquietly for the Beta, and as always I don't own MacGyver. I love reading your reviews, they really inspire me to keep going, so thank y'all and don't hesitate to let me know what you think!

Mac sighed turning over in his bed again. He wanted to sleep in, but his body wasn’t letting him. He was just too used to getting up early, going on early morning runs, having to be at the Phoenix early, and so his body’s alarm was sat for the am. He heard Bozer get up, probably to make everybody breakfast. He took a deep breath letting it out slowly trying to relax, and go back to sleep. He had just drifted back to sleep when Bozer called out that breakfast was ready. He sighed again and got on up mostly ready to face the day.

The first words Bozer said when he entered the dining room was, “Dang, you look rough!”

“Thanks, Boze,” Mac replied dryly.

“Have no need to fear, Bozer is here! And I’ve got a way to turn that frown upside down.” Bozer sing-songed as he brought a plate with his best waffles to Mac who had taken a seat at the table.

Mac mumbled thanks before slowly cutting himself a bite to eat and chewing it. As he started his meal, Riley breezed down the hall.

“Morning all!” She said cheerily.

“OK, that cinches it,” Bozer exclaimed. “I’ve entered an alternate dimension or something! Riley is all happy, and Mac is all growly. I don’t know what to make of it.” Both Mac and Riley ignore him.

After both have been eating away at their breakfasts, Mac finally realizes that Jack wasn’t there, and asked “Jack leave already.”

Bozer answers quickly, “Yep, and he wouldn’t even take the lunch I prepared for him. Rude! Now eat up, your both going back to school today!”

Mac groaned finishing what he wanted on his plate and emptying the glass of orange juice Bozer had thoughtfully given him. He then headed back to their room to get ready, both mentally and physically for the mission ahead. He used almost 30 minutes getting ready for the day and that left him only three more hours to kill before he needed to report to the school,_ joy_. So he decided to do what he always did when he couldn’t tinker with something, he read.

It felt like it had only been a few minutes when a soft knock came from the bedroom door, and Riley leaned in already dressed in her school attire.

She must have noticed Mac looking at her clothes because she gave a slow spin to show them off and asked, “So what do you think?”

“Very treachery!” he said with a chuckle.

“Ass hat. Well, that was the look I was going for. Bozer wants to know if you want lunch before you go.”

Mac was just about to protest that they had just gotten through with breakfast when he noticed that it was 11 o’clock. Holy cow, the time had flown by while he was reading. “I’ll just get a granola bar and water or something then probably head out, so tell him not to worry about me.”

Riley nodded like she was expecting that very answer, and went to tell Bozer his answer. Mac sighed, put the book down, grabbed his satchel tucked a writing pad, pen, and a couple more items he thought he might need including a handful of unbent paperclips to go with the bentones already in there, stuffed his shoes on and he was ready to go. With a deep breath, he was out the door.

To Mac, it felt like the drive to the school just flashed by and in no time at all he was arriving at the school. Following Jack’s directions, he parked his Jeep beside another one almost just like his. Taking a cleansing breath he walked up to the front doors and walked into the office. The blonde that Jack had told him about, Janie was sitting at the front desk along with a Police Officer in a white polo shirt.

Janie smiled, “Hi, welcome to Lawrence Elementary how can I help you?”

“Hi, I’m here to take the Pre-K leave?” Mac hated that the statement had come out more like a question.

“We’ve been expecting you. I’ll need your driver’s license and for you to sign in on this clipboard.” Janie then motioned him to the correct clipboard while Mac dug out his license. “Sorry about that, but we have to scan all licenses of those who don’t already have a badge.” She then gave him his license back and a sticker to show that he was an approved visitor.

Janie continued, “So on Monday when you come in we’ll have a badge for you and you will be signing on that clipboard over there.” She motioned to the far wall near where the officer was sitting. “So do you know where the Pre-K room is?”

Mac tried his most charming smile, but it felt a little forced, “I don’t have a clue sorry.”

“That’s fine. So if you go down this hallway….”

She was interrupted by the officer. “Hey, Janie, It’s about time for me to do my walk around; I’ll escort him down there.”

“OK, thanks, Rob.” Janie turned back to her computer and Rob came around the counter to introduce himself.

“Hi, I’m Officer Rob Coltrane. I’m the SRO for Lawrence Elementary, and please hold all the Dukes of Hazzard jokes. I’ve heard them all.”

Mac didn’t know what to think. He hadn’t ever seen the Dukes of Hazzard so he just said, “OK”

Opening the door for Mac the Officer continued, “The kids just call me Officer Rob”

Mac stuck out his hand, “I’m Mac.”

After a quick shake Officer Rob leads the way down the hallway, “So we have a decent group of Pre-Kers this year. Whoo-boy, let me tell you last year’s group would have scared the hair right off a bear, so be glad you’re not filling in for Kindergarten!”

Mac kept one ear on Officer, Rob while taking in all the sights of the school. The halls were crowded, with kids following one teacher after another all headed in the same direction. It was then that he realized that it must be lunchtime. As they got to the end of the hallway there were several teachers with students lined up behind them in front of a large bathroom area, with a lot more kids coming out of the bathrooms.

Officer Rob called to them as they made their way to the group of teachers. “This here is Mac, he’s Jessie’s replacement. Mac, these are the fifth- grade teachers. Don’t ever listen to a thing this one says, she’s delusional.” He pointed to the largest of the three ladies, who chortled and answered in a booming voice.

“Hey now, Tennessee is due a win!”

Officer Rob didn’t slow down, but tossed over his shoulder, “See Dee-lou-sa-nal!” Turning back he addressed Mac, “Sorry, football rivalries. Despite her poor taste in football teams, she is a good teacher. We are only a little further down this hall. I’m sure Casi, the other Pre-K teacher, will fill you in on what you need to know.”

They stopped at a door that was brightly painted, much like the other doors Mac had seen at the school, with the kid’s pictures’ stuck on little astronauts. The door was halfway open and Officer Rob shoved it all the way open and stepped in with Mac following right behind him. Mac was surprised to find Jack in the room with some guy and two women.

Officer Rob let Mac walk past him then said, “Here’s the new teacher, don’t scare him away.” Then turning to Mac, “Good luck.” With that, he walked out.

Mac was a little unsure about what to do next, thankfully the guy beside Jack stood up from his seat and lumbered over. “Howdy, I’m Ricky, that’s my trainee Jack.” Jack waved. “My wife and the Pre-K teacher Casi,” the lighter haired of the two ladies lifted a hand in greeting. “And the one shoving food in her mouth is Marie, the sub.”

After quickly swallowing her food smiled and waved, “Sorry, we don’t get much time to eat lunch. I should say y’all don’t get much time for lunch.” Casi elbowed her in the ribs for that comment.

That put Mac even more at ease, especially with Jack being there. “Hi, I’m Mac.”

“Nice to meet you, Mac. Why don’t you have a seat.” Jack said, with a wink only Mac could see and motioned to a seat beside him. Mac graciously took the offered seat putting his jacket on the back of it and the satchel beside the chair, and all eyes turned to him. Mac fidgeted his hand unconsciously going for a paperclip to fiddle with.

“In case you are wondering, the kids are at activity, so we are getting in our peaceful lunch,” Marie commented between bites. Then looking at her watch she said, “And time’s just about up.”

Casi said, “I’ll tell you what, why don’t you take Mac to get the kids, and I’ll set up their cots, and we’ll take an early nap?’

“Deal!” Marie agreed quickly. She repacked the lunch dishes that she had spread out on the desk and grabbed two Reeses from her lunch bag. “Come on Mac. I’ll tell you where everything is, well …the important things.” She grinned an impish grin at Mac that he couldn’t help but to return.

As they left the doorway she pulled out the two Reeses from her lunch, and passed one to him, “Here ya go.” He took it with a thank you. “OK, so I’m gunna show you where the activity classes are, but the school’s not that big and it’s easy to find your way around. So we’re gunna right. The big bathrooms here are where we will let the kids go to the bathroom after activity and once they get up from nap. After nap they can walk down here by themselves, but you will have to stay with them before activity, and Chris shouldn’t be in the bathroom with anyone else.” At the end of the hallway, they stopped. “Here on the right is the music room with Mrs. Greeves across from here is 3rd grade.” She continued like that telling which grade was in which room until they reached their starting point.

Pointing to the right down a short hallway, “That’s the gym, which they have two days a week. When they have gym and library you don’t have to stay, but you will have to stay for music and computer. Music is fine, but I’ll warn you Computer is boring. Well, I should take that back, we’re getting a new computer teacher for a while because the current one messed up her leg and isn’t going to be back anytime soon. Anyway, sorry if I talk too much my ADD is getting the best of me today. And we’re walking.”

She led the way pointing out the first grade rooms, the Kindergarten rooms, then stopped, “So this little hall holds the only adult bathrooms on this side of the school. Also, the room with all the custodial equipment holds the only snack and drink machines in the whole school. So it’s a very important room.” She laughed and patted her belly. “As you can tell I go there quite often!”

They got to the end of the hallway before she stopped in front of a classroom, “This is the computer classroom.” She looked inside then pushed open the door Mac decided to follow her inside. “Hey Mel, I got somebody for you to meet.”

The lady Marie called out to was only around 5’1 with long blonde hair, glasses, and looked to be in her mid- forties. Marie made the introductions, “Mel, this is Mac he is taking Jessie’s place while she is out. Mac, this is Mel, Lawrence’s second- best sub.”

“Keep dreaming.” She held her hand out, “Nice to meet you, Mac, even if you are keeping such irreparable company.” Mac shook her hand and took a step back feeling like he was out of place between these two friends.

“Wow, Mel you used a big word!? Studying your word of the day calendar?” Marie said feigning shock and confusion.

Mel rolled her eyes, “You should take that humor on the road.”

Marie checked her watch, “Yeah, I gotta book it, and get the little beasties from the library, a stand- up routine would defiantly pay more than here!” With that, she waved and then led Mac back out the door. This time they walked more quickly when they came to the adjoining hallway she turned down it. “OK so the only places you need to know here is the computer lab, and what everybody calls the big bathrooms directly across.”

She kept on walking this time but still pointed out classrooms and teachers. Reaching another hallway running left to right she stopped. “I know you probably recognize where you’re at.”

“Back at the lobby.” Was Mac’s reply.

“Gold star for you! So on the right, we have the Cafeteria, and on the left leads to the library.” They turned left passing the teacher’s lounge and nurse’s office from earlier. Stopping in front of the double doors leading into the library Marie points to the right, “So down there is the Special Ed room and the Guidance Counselor’s office.” Looking into the library through the glass in the wooden doors she saw the kids lining up. “Perfect timing and lookie here comes Mrs. Sandy. Mrs. Sandy is a bastion of Lawrence School. She was here even before I was a student, and knows all the gossip. She is also the assistant librarian; a word to the wise don’t get on her bad side.”

Opening the door Marie smiled big, “Ok, Pre-K where is my line?” The kids started to assemble in a vague line shape.”Hey Mrs. Sandy, how are you?”

Mrs. Sandy looked Mac over, “Who is your friend?” Marie introduced him to Mrs. Sandy just like she had the others. “Sorry, we’ve got to go! Let’s go remember to keep your bubbles in and your wolf ears on.” When Marie said that several children puffed out their cheeks and put bunny ears on their head. Mac sent a quizzical look to Marie, who chuckled. “It’s a way to hopefully keep them quiet, and their hands to themselves. Chris, get back in line. Bentley, quit trying to hold Tristian’s hand.” She then directed her attention back to Mac. “You’ve got to keep on them or they’ll go bonkers! Sometimes, it’s like herding cats. Austin, remember we wave to older brother.” The kid in question quickly stepped back in line.

Marie turned around and led them off, Mac didn’t know to stay with her or bring up the rear. His question was answered when Marie turned around again, and said, “You can walk up here.” He quickly caught up with her. “So usually one teacher will be at the front and the other at the end, but since you don’t know their names yet I figured it would be pointless.” Another class passed on the other side of the hallway with several of the children either hugging Marie or waving at her. She turned to him, “Here, I’m a rockstar.” She said as she laughed.

They quickly made it back to the farside bathrooms, where Marie made the kids line up on the wall with boys next to the men’s side and the girls on the girl’s side. “If you could kind of stand where you could see if any of them start playing that would be great! A couple of months ago, two of the boys were sword fighting, if you catch my drift.” Mac couldn’t help the shocked look on his face, which lead Marie to burst out in laughter, “Welcome to Pre-K!” She was still chuckling as she headed back to the girl’s side.

Soon all the kids were back in the room and on their cots. Jack and the other janitor had already left leaving Mac with Marie and Casi.

“We’re lucky this year, most of the kids will actually take a nap,” Casi commented.

“For real though, last year was constantly telling a student to lay down. It was bad, but these kids aren’t too bad at all.” Marie added.

The three of them were sitting in a row behind the desk, with Mac in the middle. Casi pulled out a sheet of paper with the day’s schedule on it. “Ok this is our regular schedule, but these next couple of weeks will NOT be normal in any way. Our local high school girls volleyball team has made it to state, and they play at the beginning of next week, then it’s red ribbon week that ends on Halloween, so for the next couple of weeks school is going to be crazy!”

“Don’t forget Parent Teacher Conferences!” Marie added.

Internally Mac started freaking out, he was going to have to talk to parents about their kid’s behavior?

“That’s probably why I’m booked solid. All of your teacher’s trying to get away from all the crazy.” Marie joked.

“You still got me down for the volleyball game dates?” Casi asked. “No talking.” The chattering that Mac heard quieted down.

“Yep, if, God forbid, we lose do you still want me for the next two days?”

“Yea, I think so. That way I can fortify myself for coming back. And Mac don’t worry too much about PTC, you will have to be here, but I’ll do all the talking, and unless the kid has an older sibling here most parents don’t come. So it probably won’t be too big of a deal.”

Marie nodded, “Yeah, you can enjoy all the other fun festivities going on that night.”

Casi shot her a look, “You’re full of it you know that, right? Athena, put your shoes back on your feet. You know better.”

Marie just nodded. Mac was so lost, and it must have shown on his face, or they decided to take pity on him. “PTC will also be the day that they will be sending home all the items they sold a couple of weeks ago for a fundraiser, there will also be a silent auction for PTO, and selling food and other items for the parents to purchase, and the book fair. Can’t forget the book fair!” Casi explained.

“Man, I used to love the book fair!” Marie reminisced. “You should have seen my parents when I came out of there with my wish list. I think they were traumatized every year.” Marie laughed at the memory. “Mom and I would argue over how many books I could purchase. It was a good time to be a teacher’s kid! Austin, get back on that bed!”

“And why is that?” Casi asked.

Marie started grinning, “Well, I may have put a couple of books on my mom or dad’s account a couple of times. It was worth the trouble that I would get into later. Didn’t Mrs. Casi say for y’all to be quiet?”

Mac smiled he had always loved the book fair too. It was something his dad would always either give him money for or would go with him to pick out the books he wanted, but only if they were science or math- related as James classified the popular fiction series not worth the paper it was written on. It was one of the most treasured and normal memories he had with his dad..

“Don’t worry these weeks will go fast,” Marie said in a reassuring tone. Mac thought to himself, _note to self, get this op done quickly so I won’t have to deal with all that!_ Outwardly he just smiled back. They continued quietly conversing among themselves until it was time to pass out the snack for the kids, and wake them up.

“Mac, if you could be putting out the snack, I’ll be waking the sleeping ones up and Marie can put cots up. Mac when it is time to leave if you want to go with Marie she can show you how the buses run, and that will be your job. That ok?” He nodded his acceptance, and they went to their tasks.

Soon enough there were 20 somewhat sleepy children munching on juice and Cheese-its, Casi moved to the front of the room and called for their attention, and motioned for Mac to come up with her.

“As you know Mrs. Jessie will be out for a while longer, and until she gets back we will be having Mr. Mac with us! Everybody tell Mr. Mac hello.” The kids replied tepidly.

Marie piped up from where she was leaning on the counter writing down bus numbers and munching on Cheese-its, “Now I know y’all can do better than that!”

This time the kids screamed, “Hi Mr. Mac.” Mac couldn’t help but chuckle. “Hi kids! I’m excited to be one of your teachers till Mrs. Jessie comes back!” The little voice in his head started chanting liar liar pants on fire!

The rest of the time was a whirlwind of packing up, getting backpacks on jackets zipped, in the correct lines, and a few of the kids even came and gave Mac hugs. They were in line walking down the hall to the lobby where the buses loaded when the intercom came on and a voice announced, “Good afternoon Lawrence family!” Marie turned to Mac. “In the mornings and afternoons the principal Mrs. Byrne will make the announcements. You know birthdays, upcoming activities, and car or bus changes. You’ll get used to it. Just keep an ear out for any of our student’s names”

Soon they were in the lobby and Marie instructed the five kids they had to sit against the cafeteria wall. “OK, so when a bus is called all the kids riding that bus will line up under the sign with their bus number on it. They will then go and get on the bus, and then all the buses will leave at once. So what we do is as soon as a bus is announced if the bus is out front we will take the kid and put them on the bus. The hardest part is keeping them quiet, and near us until their bus is called.” Then with a sigh. “Bentley please sit up and put your back on the wall, not the floor.”

When the child continued to lay in the floor like a limp fish, Marie repeated herself, this time without the please, and in a much sterner tone, that did the trick and the kid sat in line with the other kids. She turned back to Mac, “In a few minutes it’s gunna get crowded with all the buses being called, I like to take them out to their bus as soon as it’s called. Just follow me, it’s easy.” Mac nodded his head. The time passed quickly with Marie introducing him to some of the other teachers who were on bus duty, and putting the kids on the bus, which was as easy as Marie said it was. After the last kid was on the bus Marie picked up her book and lunch bag, “So it was nice meeting you Mac. I’m sure I’ll see you around and good luck!” With that, she waltzed out the front doors.

Mac was tempted to follow her, but the introduction e-mail he received from the principal said they were going to have a staff meeting after school on Friday to introduce the new employees, and as one of the new employees he figured that he should be there. Resigned to his fate he walked back to the classroom to grab his stuff, and ask Casi where they would be having the meeting at. Thankfully when he walked into the classroom Casi was back at the desk writing something down. Hearing him come in she looked up and smiled, “Ready for your first staff meeting?”

He laughed, “As I’ll ever be.”

“It won’t be too bad. The principal isn’t too terribly long -winded. She’ll probably just introduce you and the others, talk about the Red Ribbon Week dress-up days, talk about Parent –Teacher Conferences, and the teacher of the year, which is always good, cause we get cake. Let me finish this incident report and we can walk to the library together. One of the girls bit another kid in the car rider line. I swear some of these kids need restraints.” Sighing she quickly finished the paper. Grabbing her purse and coat she waited while Mac grabbed his satchel and jacket and they fell into step together. In the hallway, there were several groups of teachers all making their reluctant way to the library.

Upon arriving in the library Mac saw that Jack and Ricky had already staked out a table and were hopefully saving them a seat. Casi bee-lined it straight for them and sat in the seat next to her husband leaving Mac the seat beside Jack.

“So who else is dreading this?” Jack asked quietly. “I hate the whole ‘My name is Jack and I like waffles’ stuff.”

Mac couldn’t help, but to laugh, Ricky and Casi joined in. Mac was keeping an eye on the door so that he could see when Riley came in. A couple more groups of people came in then Riley made her appearance. She was by herself, but soon enough a large lady sitting with two other ladies cleared off a chair at their table and motioned for her to come over. Mac then turned his attention back to the conversation at the table. It sounded like Jack was regaling them with another one of his stories that Mac had heard a thousand times, but changed for civilian ears.

A lady in her mid- fifties limped into the room and it fell silent. This must be the principal. “I promise I won’t keep you long.”

Jack whispered to the table, “That usually means it’s going to last forever.” Mac wanted to elbow his friend but bit his cheek as not to laugh instead.

“We have a few topics to cover, and chief among those are our three new employees. Would y’all please stand up!”

Mac reluctantly stood up along with Jack and Riley. “This is MacGyver. He is taking Mrs. Jessie’s place. I’ve heard nothing but good things about you.” Mac smiled and did a wave. Then she moved onto Jack, “The gentleman behind his is Jack Dalton, our new janitor taking Steve’s place” Jack copied Mac with the smile and wave. “And lastly is Riley Davis, she is taking Mrs. Davis’s place while she heals. So please keep her in your prayers. Thank ya’ll for coming to our school I hope you enjoy your stay and my office door is always open if you need anything.” Mac wondered if anything included help finding the counterfeiters, but figured not.

She went on, “As you know Red Ribbon week will kick off on Wednesday which will be our first dress- up day. On Wednesday we will wear red, Thursday it will be PJ day, Friday will be camo, Monday will be dressed up like a tourist, Tuesday is career day, and next Wednesday which is also Halloween will be superhero day. Please try to dress up with the kids if you can, they love seeing all of us in our outfits.”

Someone called out, “Hey, Anna what was it your husband said last year on PJ day?”

A blonde lady at a back table laughed, “He said I looked like someone he would give a ticket to!’

The group laughed, and Mrs. Byrne continued, “So for Parent-Teacher Night, I know you are going to hopefully dressed up, and I’m sure the parents will understand or just bring a change of clothes with you. As a reminder, we will be doing the silent auction for the class boxes, a hot dog sale for the PTA, and the BETA club is selling Boograms. Also, don’t forget this is the lost week of Bookfair, we are doing wonderful so far, so let’s keep it up! I hope you will be able to buy a few things and place a few bids. Now what you have all been waiting for the naming of the teacher of the year! This teacher has been with us for several years now and has taught Pre-k all the way to 8th grade, she is now in Kindergarten. Mrs. Sena, you are the teacher of the year!”

Everybody started clapping and one of the ladies that Riley was sitting with stood up and made her way up to the front. One of the children that Mac had seen playing in the back yelled, “YAY MOM!!” Another lady at Riley’s table started chanting, “Speech, Speech, Speech!”

“Thanks so much for voting for me it means a lot! Now I reckon we better eat some cake!” Sena’s speech was short and sweet.

That was the end of the meeting as about half the teachers rose and headed for the cake where Mrs. Byrne and another lady who just walked in with a stack of plates, were cutting the cake.

Mac turned back to Casi and Ricky, “So what is our class box, and what is a Boogram?”

“One of our PTO fundraisers is that each grade picks a theme and we ask parents to donate things that fit that theme. On Thursday we will package it up to be bid on. Our theme is family game night. A Boogram is a little bag of candy delivered to whoever you want on Halloween.”

Jack asked, “So how many fundraisers are going on at the same time?”

Ricky laughed, “Too dang many. Now come on, let’s go get some cake.”

Casi affixed her husband with a look, “A small piece only!”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Ricky, Jack, and Mac made their way up to the cake table intersecting nicely with Riley. Jack introduced himself like they had never met before. “You’re the other new teacher, right?”

“That would be me.”

“It’s great to meet you! I’m Jack, this is my new buddy Mac beside me, and the big dude in the back is Ricky janitor extraordinaire.”

Riley shook each man’s hand as he was introduced, “I’m Riley, the new computer teacher, and it’s nice meeting you all. This cake looks good!”

All four grabbed plates and stepped over to where the two ladies were serving. Upon seeing the three newbies Mrs. Byrne smiled, “I’m glad I caught y’all together.” Gesturing to the lady beside her she said, “I want to introduce you to the vice-principal Mrs. Reaves.” Mrs. Reaves stood ramrod straight but didn’t have a military bearing. She looked to be in her early forties with a serious face and strait dark blonde hair. Since their hands were full they all smiled politely and took a piece of cake. Several other teachers talked to them on the way back to their tables.

Mac took a forkful of cake expecting to taste generic store -bought blandness which he would dispose of after a couple of forkfuls. But he was pleasantly surprised when he tasted the actual flavor, not just sweetness, and the icing was a lightly sweetened cream icing. Casi must have noticed the look of surprise on his face because she said.

“Marie, who you meet earlier, she is the one who made the cake. Good isn’t it?”

Jack was too busy shoveling in cake to answer, so Mac did. “I’m not a much of a dessert eater, but this is great!”

Casi ate the piece Ricky brought her, “Yep, she has a talent, we keep tellin her to open up a bakery. Ricky here would keep the place afloat by himself.” She lightly elbowed her husband. Who had the decency to look chastised?

The rest of the meeting went by in pleasant conversation with their tablemates and other teachers that came by to introduce themselves. Once they were all able to leave Bozer switched the earbuds back onto the team channel so everybody could hear each other.

“It’s caring and sharing time with your good buddy, Bozer.” Came over their ear buds. So during the drive back to the house, they discussed what they had learned during the meeting, and Bozer filled them in on what he had learned at the bank.


	5. Back to the Computer Lab

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this story has been a bit slow in the first few chapters, but since the set up in done, we'll start getting into the swing of things. This chapter takes place at the same time as the last chapter, but this time we are with Riley, and we get to meet a few more teachers! The next chapter will switch back to Mac and will be their first day of school, so expect shenanigans! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and Happy early Thanksgiving to all! One thing I am thankful for are the thoughtful reviews you kind readers leave! I am also thankful for all the other wonderful stories on this site so thanks to all the other writers!!! Also thanks to booksfallquietly for the look over. Any remaining mistakes are my own! As always I don't own MacGyver. Don't hesitate to let me know what you think!

Riley was trying not to be anxious, she was working with computers all day, it was just more of the same except with little kids, and in a new environment, ‘_I’m a government agent I could do this’_. With her little pep talk finished she pulled open the front door into Lawrence Elementary School where Mac and Jack had already paved the way. She was ready for Janie, the receptionist.

“Hi, I’m Riley Davis, the interim computer teacher.” Riley made sure to smile, and Janie smiled back.

“If you want to have a seat Ms. Davis, Mrs. Byrne wanted to talk with you before you went to the computer lab.”

Riley took the seat sure her smile was frozen on her face. ‘_It’s not good seeing the principal right off the bat. Neither Mac or Jack had even met her yet, deep breaths.’ _Sshe reminded herself_, ‘deep breaths’_.

After handing up the phone Janie showed her to the principal’s office. The office was well sized but disorganized. There were stacks of books and various papers set all over the place. Mrs. Byrne motioned for Riley to sit in one of the two seats in front of her desk. Riley had to move a pile of papers into the other chair to be able to sit.

“How are you today?” She asked in a chipper tone.

“Good?” Riley hadn’t meant for it to come out as a question.

“That’s great! So I’m sure you were wondering why I asked for you to meet me first thing. Our former computer teacher, also Mrs.Davis,” Mrs. Byrne let out a fake sounding laugh, “left plans for the next few weeks. But since she is going to be out a while I was wanting to get with you, and see if you wanted to continue to use these plans or were you wanting to make plans of your own?”

Riley had barely opened her mouth to reply when Mrs. Byrne continued. “I would like our school to concentrate on STEM education. I think that the computer class would be a great place to implement some of the ideas outlined in this wonderful curriculum that I ordered from Tynker. It is specifically designed for K-8 schools and gives a very detailed schedule for each grade level. Is this something you would be interested in or do you have acurriculum that you are familiar with?”

Riley was ready then, “The new curriculum sounds amazing. I very much agree there needs to be more of an emphasis on STEM education and I would love to help!” ‘_Anything that tells me step by step what to do is a winner in my book!’ _Riley thought. The meeting went on for a few more minutes before Mrs. Byrne’s phone rang and Riley was dismissed. She took the STEM website Mrs. Byrne had written down, her badge, and keys that she had been given and made her way back to Janie.

Janie gave her directions on how to find the classroom, even though she had a pretty good idea where it was from Jack’s map, “Once you go out the front door go to the end of the hallway turn right and your room is at the end of that hallway. I’ll call the sub and let her know your coming” Riley approached the closed door of what she assumed was her computer lab, she could see through the door little kids with headphones on staring at their screens. She knocked quietly and soon enough a petite blonde lady came and opened the door. No sooner than she cleared the door than the lady introduced herself.

“Hi, I’m Mel, the sub for today. It’s great to meet you!”

“I’m Riley, likewise.”

“So this is the last class of the day, 1st grade.” Without even turning around she commanded, “Asher, get back on your computer.” A little blonde kid slumped back in his chair. She then continued speaking to Riley. “They are a pretty good class. We have thirty more minutes before they go back to their classroom and I’ll be glad to go over hopefully anything you will need in the upcoming weeks. I’ve been filling in for Mrs. Davis this past week.”

She led Riley back over to the teacher’s desk which had its own computer set up, Riley hoped it would give them access to the surveillance cameras. Mel grabbed another chair and set it beside the teacher’s chair that she was sitting in. There was a big binder on the desk which Mel opened up.

“So this is the sub binder, it holds everything you will need to know. Here on the first page is the schedule, if it says that you have RTI just go down to the assistant’s room and see where they need you.” _Assistants room? Schools have assistants now?_ “Anytime you have Plan that means no kids, but a lot of times teachers will call with computer questions. On each page here in the binder is the class roster. Some classes have assigned seating, some do not. Oh, so the passwords for all the computers in on the last page here, your copier number is also on here.”

Mel flipped a couple of pages past the class rosters. “Here is the sub plans. Most of it is just different websites the kids are allowed to get onto. The younger they are the more you have to make sure they don’t accidently get off the website. Ummmm, that’s about it. Oh, the teacher will walk them to class, and the next teacher will take them back unless it’s a plan then you have to walk them back. The Pre-K assistant will have to say in here with you, he’s new too, so maybe y’all can help each other out.” Looking at the time Mel announced, “Ok exit out of your program, put your headphones up, and stand behind your chair.”

A couple of kids took off for the door. “I didn’t tell you to line up yet did I?” The two walked back to their seats. Mel then had them line up by rows. Riley opted to walk with them back to their classroom and Mel hopefully pointed out the assistants’ room. Riley had to ask, “So what is an assistant in a school setting? Cause I’m just not figuring that out.”

Mel laughed, “Well they used to help the teachers out with making copies, doing bulletin boards, anything the teachers needed help with. Now they mostly do RTI.”

Riley nodded, “So what is RTI?”

Mel laughed again. “Truthfully, I’m not sure what it stands for, but your work with the kids on reading and sometimes math skills”

By that time they had arrived back at the computer lab. So Mel asked, “Is there anything else that you might need? I’d be glad to help you in any way possible.”

Riley thought for a second, “Oh do you know where the staff meeting is supposed to be this afternoon?”

Mel nodded; “Most of the staff meetings will be in the library” Then Mel gave her directions on how to get there. Mel gathered her book and her other belongings. “I’m going to write my phone number down on here, text me if you have any questions or anything, also if you need a sub! It was great meeting you Riley; I hope you have a great school year!”

Riley hoped the op didn’t last that long, in fact right now she wanted to wrap it up ASAP. Once she was sure that Mel had gone, Riley closed the door and made sure it was locked. Then she settled herself behind the teacher’s computer. Activating her comm she asked, “Bozer you there?”

“Girl, you know I’m always here. What you need?”

“I just got access to the teacher’s computer, and I’m about to see if I can get us access to the surveillance cameras. I need you on the Phoenix’s computers.” While Riley was talking she was pulling up what she needed from the computer. After she had been quiet for a while Bozer asked, “Riley, you still there?”

“Yeah, I don’t think that the cameras are networked, so I’m going to have to get on either the principal or vice-principal’s computer to give us access.” Riley was not happy. She had hoped they could get the cameras, and maybe even find out who the person/people were over the weekend, but no such luck. She saw some movement at the door. “I’m going off coms, I think someone is at the door.”

She didn’t even give Bozer time to reply before she switched it off. Then the expected knock came at the door. Riley opened it up to see a smiling older lady about 5’3 with spiky blonde hair.

“Hi?” Riley greeted her guest.

“Oh, you must be the new teacher! I’m Tina, one of the assistants here at Lawrence. Has Mel already left?”

“Uhhh, yeah. She just left a few minutes ago.” Riley was unsure what the woman wanted and therefore stood awkwardly in the doorway.

“That’s fine! Did she tell you about car rider line duty?” Tina questioned.

Riley thought for a second but didn’t recall any mention of a car rider line. “No, I don’t think she did.”

Tina smiled, “Well, let me tell you what to do, and you can start on Monday. Maybe you can kinda observe what we do today, and then you’ll be ready.” Tine stopped talking so Riley nodded her understanding. “So we get the students into two lines, with walkies stationed up and down the hallway. The students know to listen for their names, and when they hear it they make their way to the front. Our job is to make sure the students stay quiet so that they can hear their names. If they keep on talking pull them out of line to put their noses on the wall. It’s pretty easy.”

Riley nodded, in information overload. Then the intercom came on and started the afternoon announcements. Tina looked at the intercom, “That’s my cue. It was nice meeting you; I guess I’ll see you at the staff meeting!” She then stepped out and closed the door.

Riley decided to watch how they did the car rider line and had to admit that she was impressed with how quiet the kids kept, and how orderly everything ran. Soon enough it was time for the staff meeting. She hated to admit that she was a bundle of nerves. The Phoenix was her first real job, so she didn’t have the same job experience the rest of the team had. But hey if she could survive prison then this would be a walk in the park. She squared her shoulders, calmed down, and left the room in search of the library.

She found the library easily enough thanks to Mel’s directions and the fact that a bunch of other people was headed in the same direction. She stepped into the cool space and looked around to find a place to sit or see if she could spot Mac or Jack. She found them sitting next to each other, and made a note to harass them about that later.

She heard a voice ask, “You looking for a seat?” and found a group of three ladies sitting at the same table. “We have a free spot if you don’t mind a bunch of crazy Kindergarten teachers.” It was the oldest of the three that spoke to her. She had more grey than brown hair and was as tall as she was wide.

“As long as you don’t mind being seen with the new kid!”

The youngest one shoved out the seat beside her and grabbed her things off the seat, and motioned for Riley to sit. “Hi, I’m Sena. That’s May.” The third teacher looked up from her phone and waved before looking back at it. “She’s still working on her adulating skills.”

“Shut up, Sena. Sorry, one of my kids is at homesick, and she gets needy.”

Sena picked back up her introductions, “And the old one is Kim.”

“You’ve got to work on your manners.” Kim sighed, Riley felt like this was an old argument.

“Like you’re any better.” Sena shot back.

Kim rolled her eyes, “You may have a point.” She then turned her attention to Riley, “So let me guess, the new Pre-K teacher?”

“Nope, I’m the new computer teacher.” Riley was getting used to saying it.

“Thank the Lord!” Sena commented. “I’m gunna need you to stop by sometime and fix mine. I think it might be possessed.”

“I told you that your nastiness would infect everything,” May said without even looking up.

Sena said, “You think you’re as funny as all get out!” She had opened her mouth to say more when she noticed Mrs. Byrne limping in. Sena leaned close to Riley, “That’s the principal, mark my words the first thing she will say will be she isn’t keeping us long.”

Riley said, “Yeah, I don’t think I want to take that bet. So why is she limping?”

Kim smothered a laugh, “So the story goes that she wrenched her knee running after one of May’s kids that had escaped.”

“Hey, she was not in my room at the moment. The guidance counselor had gotten her, but I believe it. The kid was something else, she was way too big for her britches.”

Sena rolled her eyes, “Enough with your horrid kids, y’all see the little cutie sitting with Casi and Ricky?”

May and Kim both looked over to where Jack and Mac were sitting. “Which one?” Kim asked. “They both are delectable.”

Riley held back a shiver of disgust, that was her surrogate brother and father they were talking about, but it wasn’t like she hadn’t heard it before and from some of her co-workers, and friends. One of her non-work friends, Elizabeth, had the biggest crush on Mac after he had come over one day to help her fix her stove.

“You’re right, they both are fine, but I was talking about the blonde one.” Sena mused looking Mac over. “I wonder if he’s married?”

May who had gone back to her phone muttered, “Aren’t you married?”

“Yeah, but I still have eyes. Plus I wasn’t thinking about myself.” Senna defended herself.

Kim snorted, “Are you sure about that?”

Kim was about to say more when Mrs. Byrne began. Sure enough, Sena was right. Right off the bat, Riley had to stand to be introduced, but it wasn’t too bad. Sena and Kim kept her entertained as Mrs. Byrne made the announcements about the upcoming events. Then came the announcement about the Teacher of the Year.

“Oh, shit. I’m going to murder whoever voted for me.” Sena muttered under her breath as she shoved herself out of the chair to go accept her award. Riley watched the look of glee come over May’s face when Sena got up there then she started chanting, “Speech, Speech, Speech!” with Kim backing her up. If looks could kill both Kim and May would have died.

Then thankfully it was over, May looked at her, “You have got to get some cake. It’s amazing.”

Riley was not one to pass up free food, as evidenced by all the times Mac or Bozer had brought her leftovers so she made her way up to the front to get in line, and managed to join Mac and Jack up there. She was introduced to the vice-principal, Mrs. Reeves before she could escape back to her table with the Kindergarten teachers.

Kim was eating the cake slowly, sighing with every bite she took. Finally, May asked, “What’s up?”

“Well, I keep thinking, I could be skinny if I didn’t eat this cake.”

“OK?”

“Well if I was skinny then my husband could see all of me when I was naked instead of me having to shift fat around,” with another sigh she ate a bit of cake. “But this cake is so good, and I’ve been fat my whole life, oh well.”

“Heavens to Betsy, Kim. If my husband could see all of me at once he’d dun have a stroke.” Sena answered as she ate another forkful of cake.

Riley didn’t know what to think, and May just rolled her eyes, she was probably used to hearing such comments. Another teacher came up to their table, pulled up a chair and sat down in it. “OK, so I had this dream last night where we had to switch classrooms and I got Sena’s class. I swear I woke up in a panic, heart going a mile a minute, drenched in sweat. It was awful! So I’m pretty sure we all voted her teacher of the year out of pity. Those kids are horrible”

May lean in and lowered her voice, “She’s had to up her mood meds just to deal with them.”

“You tellin’ everybody my business?” Sena asked, but she didn’t sound all that shocked.

“Like she didn’t already know.” May shot back.

The table fell silent, and the newcomer realized that Riley was there and colored a bit. “Hi! I’m one of the 1st -grade teachers, Mrs. Cindi. You’re the new computer teacher, right?

Cindi was a tall statuesque lady with a tan complexion and dark hair. She had an air of friendliness about her that Riley immediately liked. “Yes, I am”

“Cool, so how computery are you? Like are you just someone to fill in till she gets back or do you know how to fix computer problems?” Everybody at the table’s eye was on Riley and her answer. She figured that if she said yes that it would be all over the school and she would be inundated with computer calls, oh well better to see if they were the counterfeiter.

“I’m good with computers. Point me in the right direction and I’ll do my best to get it fixed.” Riley smiled feeling like she had made some progress with the investigation.

“Excellent, be expecting my call on Monday. I can’t shut my computer down and one of my student computers is always freezing.”

“Not a problem. If you’ll remind me on Monday, I’ll come down during my plan period, and see what I can do.”

Cindi was beaming now, “You are awesome, thank you! Now, I’ve got to go and make sure the kids haven’t burned down the house yet. See y’all on Monday.” With that, she was gone. The group chatted a little bit more before the party mostly broke up. She slipped out before Mac and Jack to go get her keys. After retrieving them she went back down the hallway bidding teachers a goodbye.

Once she was in her vehicle she turned her comm. back on, and soon heard Bozer’s voice announce that it was sharing and caring time which caused her to laugh. All in all, it hadn’t been a bad afternoon after all.

When they had all arrived back at the house they convened in the living room. Bozer reminded them that they had a check- in with Matty in about thirty minutes.

Jack started the team meeting, “So the most important piece of business is which of the dress- up days are we going to do? I’ve got camo day covered!” Mac and Riley both shot him a look. “What? We’ve got to support our new school!”

“And dress up days is the way to do that?” Riley could just hear the sarcasm dripping from Mac’s voice.

“Hey, I’ve always said that dressing alike provides a sense of unity.”

“And you’ve also said that you are a lone wolf, then howled like a wolf.” Mac pointed out.

“Shut it, you know I’m right. Plus it’s fun!” Jack was sticking to his guns, so it looked like a trip to a clothing store was in order soon.

“So Riley how did the hacking go?” Jack asked her.

“It didn’t.”

“You couldn’t just boobity boop it?”

“How many times do I have to tell you that’s not a thing? We’re gonna have to try to get in through the principal’s computer and see if I can get us access that way.” Riley felt a headache coming on.

They all were quiet for a minute then Jack spoke, “How about we go in on Sunday? There will be fewer or no others around. I’ll just do my janitor thing, let you in the backdoor, you can get in do your thing then get out. Easy peasy.”

Riley nodded. Mac spoke up, “I’ll be on standby for backup, sounds like a sound plan. Matty will be glad that we have at least a plan in place.” As if summoned Riley’s computer started ringing with an incoming video call. After accepting, Matty’s face filled the small screen.

“So what do you have to report?” The team filled her in on what they had, and what was planned so far.

Matty sighed, “Try not to keep this going too long, the Phoenix can’t afford to pay for all the expenses this op requires for too long.”

“Oh, that raises a question, Matty. Do we get to keep the payment from both of the jobs? Cause being a janitor is harder than it looks. My back is killin me!” Jack rubbed his sore back to prove his point.

“What do you think Dalton, and pop a couple of Alive. Webber out.” With that the transmission cut. Riley and Mac turned to look at Jack.

“What? That broom is heavy and you don’t realize how much stuff is in a classroom until you have to sweep it! I’m working hard!”

“Sure” Mac trailed off chuckling. “So do you really want to do the dress- up days? I might be willing to do a couple, Riley?”

Riley hated being put on the spot like that it reminded her too much of how it was when she was a kid growing up, “If you guys are in I guess I will be too. I’ve already got wear red day covered, oh am calling Wonder Woman for Superhero day!”

“And here I was hoping to pull off that skirt” Jack fake pouted.

“Hey, you could be Super Annoying! An original superhero!” Riley threw back. The group went back and forth trying to decide who was wearing what for which day. The discussion lasted until the pizza arrived. After supper, everybody drifted to do their own thing. Mac went for a run, Jack went outside to get a few calisthenics in, Bozer disappeared to chat with LeAnna, and Riley worked on another project she was running.

Saturday was spent shopping and getting the lay of the land. Mac drove around the local park, While Riley and Bozer did the shopping, and Jack hit up a few local places to see and be seen. The day went quickly and before they knew it Sunday was dawning bright and early.

Riley was lounging in the living room when she noticed that Jack looked nice, “You look nice. Where are you going?”

“So if I look nice, I have to be going somewhere?” Jack asked “If you must know I’m headed off to church. I was invited yesterday and thought I would check it out.”

Riley was surprised, she didn’t remember Jack saying anything about church, and they had never gone when he was dating her mom. He grabbed a doughnut and went out the door. She was still mulling it over when Mac appeared in the living room still drying his hair from the shower.

“Did you know Jack goes to church?” Riley was still mulling it over.

“Yeah, he went with his grandma as a kid. He told me that if he doesn’t go every so often that she’ll know and call him. It’s true, she will.” Mac nodded sagely. “It’s like Granny Dalton has a sixth sense about it or something.”

“I think I remember him mentioning her a few times.” Riley tried to bring up any specific recollections but failed.

“She’s something else, but let me tell you that lady can cook! Jack invited me over for a couple of Thanksgivings when Bozer had gone home, and talk about stuffed! I thought I was going to need a wheelchair to get me out of the doorway!

After Jack got back the plan was set in motion for them to break into the principal’s office. Jack entered first and started cleaning up the office area; he then made his way down the hall into the principal’s office and cracked the door for Riley to slip into.

Jack spoke quietly into his mic, “Ok Riley the coast is clear whenever you are ready.

Riley heard her cue and slipped in the backdoor. She quickly located the computer and started it up. “Ok, I’m in, starting the process” Her fingers flew over the keys and she quickly found the right program. With a few clicks, she gave herself a backdoor. “Bozer, you see the link?”

“Sure do.”

“Click it and check to make sure it’s working.” Riley waited while Bozer checked everything over.

“Looks good, should I have sound?” Bozer questioned.

“No, it looks like it’s a video- only camera; we’ll have to plant bugs.”

“I think you mean, Jack will have to plant our bugs.” Jack cut in.

“You might want to hurry up in there; I think I just saw the principal’s car pull in,” Mac warned over the comms.

Riley hurriedly started backing out of the programs and started the shutdown, but it stopped saying that it was loading an update.

“Stall her Mac! I’m not ready in here!” Riley turned off the screen and prayed that Mac could stall her long enough that the computer would finish updating its self. She eased towards the door into the office and listened to the conservation that Mac was having with Mrs. Byrne outside.

‘I’m so glad to see you Mrs. Byrne’ apparently Mrs. Byrne wasn’t close enough for the comm. to pick up her response. ‘I was wanting to get into the classroom to get more familiar with it and get some things laid out, but after getting here realized that I didn’t have a key to get in!’ Riley could hear fainter talking from Mrs. Byrne’s end. Then Mac spoke up, ‘That would be great, I’ll follow you around to the front office to grab them.’

Riley chanced to look out the glass back door and saw Mrs. Byrne and Mac walk off. As soon as they were gone the computer clicked off and she slipped out the back door. “I’m clear and headed back to the house.”

Jack responded, “I’m going to do a few more janitorial things, then be on my way.” The team could hear a bit more chatting from Mac and Mrs. Byrne, but soon his voice came clearly over the comms. “Yeah, I’m stuck here for an hour at least, but hey I’ve got a set of keys now, and new respect from the principal who ‘appreciates my dedication’”

Jack snorted, “If she only knew.”

“Keep it up Jack, and I’ll tell the Pre-K kids that the new janitor likes to mop up juice spills and crushed up animal crackers.”

“You wouldn’t!”

“Try me.”

Riley finally intercepted, “Boys go back to your jobs, Mac why don’t you find something to fix. It’s a school, so probably half the place is broken.” With a sigh, she got back in her car and drove back to the house.

Riley and Bozer were going over the camera angles and where they thought the best place to plant the mics would be, when Mac and Jack arrived. They quickly worked out that the best places to hide listening devices would be the office, both the teacher’s lounges, the assistants’ office, and the gym lobby. That way all the places hidden from camera view could be kept under surveillance by audio. Jack planned to plant them first thing in the morning, so that when the school day began the Phoenix operatives aka Bozer, would be able to keep their ears and eyes on everybody.


	6. Mac's first day as a teacher

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I have finished 'There to back you up' I'm going to try to post two chapters a week, if anybody is even reading this (Shout out to all who have read and left a review, y'all are amazing and your words always put a smile on my face!) Thanks to Booksfallquietly for looking this over, and as always I don't own MacGyver!

Now that Mac knew the routine it was much easier to check in at the office, then hurry to the Pre-K room to leave his stuff and finally report to the gym lobby where Pre-K was dropped off in the mornings and picked up in afternoons. He arrived to see Marie with a death grip on a Yeti thermos, and seven kids seated along the front of the concession stand that took up the back of the lobby.

“Good morning.” He greeted smiling.

She cut her eyes at him, “What’s so good about it? It’s freezing, and I could still be in a nice warm bed, but I’m here.” Mac was taken aback he started to say something when she seemed to realize exactly what she had said as her eyes got wide. “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry! It’s been a rough mornin’, I haven’t had enough of my hot chocolate to make me fit company yet.”

Mac smiled, he could understand grumpy morning people. “Hot chocolate? Most people only clutch their coffee like that.”

“Yeah, I’m not a coffee drinker, it tastes wayyyy too bitter for me. Now, this is my homemade brew with real melted chocolate, none of that powdered stuff. Want a drink?”

While it did sound good, Mac wasn’t a fan of drinking after another person or a huge chocolate eater. “No, thanks.”

“You sure, it’s really good! I can even get a cup out of the concession stand.” She waved the thermos all inviting like, then turned to the kids. “What did I say about keeping your back to the wall?” Most of the kids scooted back.

Finally, he gave in, “Might as well. I have a feeling you would keep harping on me till I gave in.”

She flashed him a huge grin, “Guilty. So if any parents show up have them sign the clipboard here, and I’ll be right back.”

She showed him the clipboard and hopped up out of the chair she had been sitting in darting into the concession stand. The children were mostly just sitting there and there were no cars to be seen. Marie was right back out holding a small cup. She pulled the lid of her Yeti off and poured him a bit to try. She looked inordinately happy that he was trying it. Accepting the cup he could feel a pleasant warmth it was giving off. He took a sip, and it was good, a bit too chocolatey for him, but good. It was like the sipping chocolate Jack had insisted they try in Switzerland.

“That’s good!” He commented.

“Thank you! If you want any more just let me know! So go ahead and take the kids we do have to the room, they can hang their backpacks and jackets up and unpack their folders then play with rug toys. I might send some more groups with older students, if not I’ll be back at 8 with the rest.”

Mac made a mental note of what all the kids were supposed to do but figured that by now they knew the routine. Marie turned to the kids, “OK, y’all remember Mr. Mac? He’s going to take you back to the room so let’s line up.”

At the sound of line up, the kids jumped to their feet and shoved into a semblance of a line. Once they were all in line he led them back through the gym, and to the classroom. Thankfully the kids seemed to know what to do and hung their backpacks and jackets up themselves then got out some toys and started playing. Mac stood around watching for a bit before deciding that right then would be a good time to check in with Bozer to see if Jack got the bugs planted.

He stepped over to the fire exit so the kids wouldn’t notice he was talking to himself. He turned the earbud up, “Hey Boze you there?”

“I’m always here for ya baby.” Came the quick reply.

“Yeah, don’t say that again. Did Jack get the bugs placed?”

“Easy Peasy. And a word of warning, I wouldn’t eat the fish sticks for lunch. At least if what Mrs. Peters was saying was correct.” Mac could hear Bozer shutter.

“I’ll take that under advisement. Talk to you later.” Mac then turned the earbud back down.

He had just stepped away from the door when another group of five students came into the room lead by an older student. Four of them walked to the back of the room and started hanging up their things. One little boy stayed near the door. Mac approached him to see if he needed help, remembering one of the manuals he read, he crouched down to be on the child’s level.

“Hi! I don’t know if you remember me, but my name is Mr. Mac, and I’m going to be your teacher for a little while. Do you need some help?”

When the little boy nodded his head his little ringlets bobbed with him. He was a cute kid with bright brown eyes, and adorable blonde curls in his long hair. The little boy took Mac’s hand and they made their way to the back of the classroom.

“Can you tell me your name, so I know where to hang up your coat and backpack?”

The little boy quietly answered, “Mommy calls me Benny, but my real name is Bentley.”

Mac remembered the kid from the Friday before because he was the one laying on the floor. He scanned the row of names and found Bentley’s. “So what do you want me to call you?” The little boy thought about the answer as he shrugged off his backpack and handed it to Mac then his jacket.

Very serious like Bentley said, “You can call me Benny if you want. I thinks I like it the bestest.”

Mac held back a smile, “Ok, Benny. Why don’t you go play.”

Benny turned his liquid chocolate eyes on Mac and asked, “Can I sit on your lap? I don’t wanna play right now.”

“Sure?” Mac wasn’t that comfortable yet, but he couldn’t turn down those pleading eyes. So Mac grabbed the teacher’s chair and sat down in it. Benny climbed in his lap without any hesitation and leaned into his embrace. A couple more kids came in unpacked and started playing before Marie came in with the last of the kids. She smiled at Mac and made her way over to them.

“Hey, Benny. Found a new buddy?” Marie asked.

“ Uh-huh. He’s Mr. Mac. Like Mac and Cheese, but without the cheese.” Mac thought, _Jack is gonna love hearing this one_. He could also see the mirth on Marie’s face.

“That’s a great way to remember Mr. Mac’s name, now go help clean up ok?”

Benny jumped off Mac’s lap and announced that it was clean up time. The other kids started cleaning up at his announcement.

“I’m glad Benny’s found a friend with you. His dad died last month, and it’s been hard on him.” Marie told him confidentially. “Ok, so once they get the rug cleaned up and are back in their seats we will pass out breakfast. They get the milk right now, and we save the juice for their snack this afternoon.“ Marie pointed out the rolling coolers that the breakfast and drinks were in.

They divided up the task and soon the kids were munching on chicken ‘n biscuits and watching something animated that Mac didn’t have a clue about. After he handed out the last milk Marie motioned him over from where she sat behind the desk in the back of the room. He took the assistants’ seat beside her.

“So we use these few minutes of peace to catch up on whatever or just chill for the upcoming day, with food and a show on they are zombies! When I start the lesson of the day, you’ll need to take the coolers back to the cafeteria and give the office our attendance report. After you get back we’ll start centers, and do small group, then it will be lunchtime, after lunch is recess followed by activity, then reading time and nap. After their nap is snack then it’s time to go home!”

Marie was about to say more when a girl came over, “Teacher, I’m done.”

Marie sighed, “First what is my name?”

“Ms. Marie.”

“Good job, Athena!” Marie praised. “Now what do we do when we are finished.”

Athena scrunched up her nose like she was thinking hard, “Sit in our seats?” She answered hesitantly.

“Exactly!” Marie then turned Athena around to go back to her seat. “And she is named after the goddess of wisdom.” Marie then turned to look at Mac, “We also have another one named Freya who is.”

Mac interrupted her, “She is the Norse goddess of love, fertility, war, and death. Sorry, sometimes I can’t help myself.”

Marie smiled, “It’s fine,” she said with a wave of her hand. “Sometimes I do the same myself. To quote a TV character, ‘I know a little about a lot of things, just enough to make me dangerous!’ So could you open that fire door and grab the bucket out there?”

Mac nodded his agreement and the two go up. Marie paused the show the kids were watching and got in front of the class. “Ok class, who remembers what my name is?”

As a group, the kids answered, “Ms. Marie.”

“Great job y’all!” Marie praised them. “Now, who remembers what our new teacher’s name is?”

There was a pause then just a couple of voices shouted, “Mr. Mac!”

“Very good! I love how you remembered that! Ok class as a group let’s say, ‘Hi Mr. Mac!”

The kids enthusiastically shouted the greeting back. “Awesome! Ok, when you are done with your breakfast pour your milk out in the bucket, throw away your trash, and come sit on the rug.” The kids who were done scurried to do as they were asked; while a few more were still eating at their seats. Soon everybody was done and Mac was on his way to the cafeteria.

The hallways were quiet that early in the mornings, as he passed some classrooms he could hear different teachers talking and in some videos playing. Turning the corner he almost ran into Jack.

“Hey, little guy are you lost? Did you escape from Pre-K?” Jack joked.

“You only think you are funny.” Mac groused.

“I’m freaking hilarious. You escape already?”

“Nope, I’ve got to return these to the cafeteria.” He motioned at the coolers he was rolling down the hall. “Better get on with it before I am reported missing.” Mac started to walk off, but Jack stopped him.

“Hey before you leave, there’s a water fountain that Ricky says nobody can fix. Think you might want to have a go at it?” The challenging look in Jack’s eyes told Mac everything he needed to know. Jack knew Mac couldn’t leave something broken if he thought he might be able to fix it.

“Fine, I’ll see if I can find you at activity.”

Jack gave him a confident grin, “See you then partner.”

With a sigh, Mac continued on his way. He quickly did the drop-offs and was back in the classroom before long. Marie was just finishing the lesson and told the student to go to their seats they had a coloring sheet to do. Mac passed out the sheets while Marie got the overhead going.

Finished Mac went to Marie, “So some of these kids are as lost as a goose. I’m going to tell them which color to use, but you’re gunna have to check to make sure it’s the right one.”

Mac nodded, “Does the projector always look that cloudy?” he questioned.

“Yep,” Marie said emphasizing the p. “It’s old, but we can still kinda see it, ‘ish.” She laughed at her own joke.

“I think I might be able to make the picture better.” Mac offered thinking about what he might need to do that project.

“Please do! Chris, did I tell you to do anything? And Grayson are we supposed to be out of our seat? Remember when two adults are talking y’all are quiet.”

Marie was correct in that about half of them still didn’t know their colors despite Marie also doing the sheet on the overhead, by the time they were finished at least three different children had scribbled all over their paper and one had ripped it to shreds.

He showed the work to Marie, “Is this normal?”

She peered at the names, “Oh yeah, I’m just surprised Benny’s isn’t with it. You must have made a good impression on him! So for small groups, I’m going to have you do matching upper and lower case letters.” She handed him a small sheet of paper with all the kids’ names on it. “Just start from the top, call about five at a time, and repeat till all have had a chance to try it. If you get frustrated, just let them go, and try another group. Got it?”

Mac nodded, it couldn’t be that bad right? Oh, how he was wrong. Mac got the cards he was to use and called the first five children. “Tristan, Mason, Amy, Harley, and Naveah please come see me.” The three girls and two boys had a seat around the table. Mac held up the flashcards. “I’m going to show you a capital letter and you are going to pick up the right lowercase card, ok?”

All the kids nodded in understanding. Mac held up the letter T, “Does anyone know what the lowercase for this letter is?” All hands shot up. “Mason, can you show me the lowercase?” Mason picked up the letter f. “Close, but that’s the letter f. Amy, can you show us the letter T?” She nodded her head vigorously and picked up the letter l. “That’s the letter L, Harley?” Harley finally got the correct lowercase letters.

And so it went, only about half of them could correctly identify most of the upper and lowercase letter. Mac rejoined Marie behind the desk.

“Is this normal for them not to know their letters?” He asked.

“Well most of these kids nobody works with them, so the only education they will get is from here. It’s a sad fact that most children from a lower socioeconomic household perform lower in schools than parents from a higher earning household.”

Mac gave her a look because that was an answer that he would give Jack.

“What? I is edumacated. I dun got me a master’s degree en everything.” Mac laughed at her mangled speech.

“What is your master’s in?” Mac questioned, because if it was in art, then he might have his counterfeiter.

“Guidance Counseling, I majored in psychology for my bachelor’s. You?”

“I dropped out of college to join the Army.” He hated that he hadn’t had a chance to finish his degree, but it was what it was.

Marie looked impressed, “Wow, that’s dedication. Thanks for serving. Where did you go to college ?”

Mac squirmed, “MIT.”

Now Marie looked doublely impressed, “Dang you must be like super smart! I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody that attended MIT. Only characters on TV. So fun fact, I looked up MIT to see if it was a real college after hearing it only referenced on TV.”

Mac laughed, “Oh it’s real alright!”

Marie looked at her watch, you think it would take you long to fix that projector, we have a little bit before lunch.”

Mac thought for a second, “It shouldn’t take me too long.” He quickly jotted down a few items for her to grab. “If you could get those and a ladder I don’t think it would take any longer than 10 minutes.”

“Awesome! I’ll just go grab these.” Then Marie was out the door. She hadn’t been gone but a second when the first tattle teller approached Mac.

“Mr. Mac, Harley won’t share the dolls.” A little kid said, maybe Nevaeh? He wasn’t sure. Sighing, he stood up and walked over to the little girl. “Hi, Harley, now make sure you share with your friends. It is much more fun to play together than by yourself.” Harley then held out the doll to Naveah. “Thank you!”

Mac feeling confident walked over to the projector and was studying it from the ground when he felt a tapping on his hand. Looking down it was one of the boys,

“Hey, teacher. Luke said he wasn’t my bestest friend anymore.”

Mac didn’t know what to say to that one, thankfully Marie walked back in. “Greyson, first that’s Mr. Mac, not hey teacher. Do you want us calling you hey student?”

The little boy just shrugged.

Marie sighed “You wouldn’t like it. Also it’s ok if Luke isn’t your best friend, you don’t have to have a best friend or your best friend can change, it is ok. Now go play.” Sighing the little blonde boy went back to playing with the blocks.

“I promise the phrase you’ll use most often is ‘go play’ it works for just about everything, except bleeding, then they need to go to the nurse. So here is your; Ainsley do NOT hit people! Go sit in time out!” Mac and Marie watched the little girl stalk over to the time out chair and slung herself in it.

“Sorry! I swear it’s like having Tourette’s sometimes! So here are the supplies you asked for, and our new janitor, Mr. Jack is bringing the ladder, in a second.” Mac was looking over the items she had brought when Jack walked in with the ladder.

“Mr. Jack!” cried several of the kids as they abandoned their toys to go hug him.

“Hey, rugrats! Y’all got any good toys for Mr. Jack to play with?” A couple of the kids snatched up the toys they were playing with to show him. Mac rolled his eyes as he went to retrieve the ladder. ‘_Of Jack would be a huge hit with the kids’_ Mac thought amusedly.

After playing with the kids for a few minutes Jack sent them back to playing and walked over to where Mac was now on the ladder taking the projector apart.

“What ch’a doin’?” Jack inquired.

Marie replied, “He’s trying to fix the projector. I’m not sure if it can actually be done, especially with these random items, but we shall see. And heck if he breaks it, that will be a good reason for the school to get a new one. Win-win in my book!”

Mac looked down from where he was working just to see the look on Jack’s face. Mac chuckled to himself wondering how hard it was for his friend to bite his tongue. He pulled the lens off the front and was about to ask for the cleaner when Jack was already handing it up to him. He took off a few more parts and again Jack handed him what he needed before he asked. A few more minutes and he had it back together again.

“Ok, I’m going to turn it on. Mac pressed the power button and after taking a few seconds to warm up the projection was as clear as could be. Mac smiled proud of his handy work.

“Wow! That is amazing! I’m blown away! It’s so clear now! Jessie and Casi are going to be so happy when they get back.” Marie exclaimed. “Oh, you have got to go fix the microwave in Sena’s room, she’s one of the kindergarten teachers! I swear it’s about to fall apart.” Mac must have given her a look because she paused and said, “I mean if that’s ok with you?”

Mac smiled, “I’ll be glad to take a look at it. No promises though.”

Marie looked at her watch, “Oh crap, it’s lunchtime! Ainsley, come here. Clean up time!” The little girl slowly comes over, Marie crouched down to be on eye level with her. “So can you tell me why you were in time out?’

“Cause I hitted that girl.” Came the reply.

Marie sighed, “Do we hit our friends?’

“No.” came the sullen reply.

“Ok, go help clean up. It’s lunchtime.” Ainsley scampered off.

Jack picked up the ladder and grabbed the other supplies that Mac had used. “Well, I guess I better be going. See y’all later.”

“Thanks!” Marie called.

“Yeah, thanks, Mr. Jack,” Mac added hoping Jack could hear the underlying meaning.

“No problem, y’all,” Jack replied, oh yeah, he got it Mac thought.

“All right, let’s line up! Mason, you are our line leader for today.” Marie announced. A couple of kids grabbed their lunch boxes and fell into a semblance of a line. Marie led them out of the classroom with Mac bringing up the rear. They stopped at the bathroom so the kids could wash their hands, and use the facility. After all the kids had gotten their tray and sat down Mac was able to grab his tray, and per Bozer’s request, Mac stayed away from the fish sticks. He had to admit they did seem a little gross. After setting his tray down he joined Marie in helping the kids open various lunch items.

When passing a table Mac thought he saw something on the floor under the table where the kids were sitting. Squatting down he picked the patriotic colored item up. It was a pair of little boys Spiderman boxers. He called Marie over to show her.

“What in the heck?” Marie exclaimed. She leaned down to the boy sitting in front of them, Nick, and asked him if they were his. He kind of shook his head no, so Marie checked with a couple of other kids, nobody claimed them.

“So what do you do with a pair of underwear?” Mac questioned.

“IDK this is a first for me. I guess I’ll take them to the nurse, she holds all the extra clothes, plus I need to heat my lunch. Watch them while I run them over real quick?” Marie asked.

“Sure.” Marie left and everything seemed calm so Mac went to eat his cafeteria lunch. It wasn’t very good, but he was spoiled by Bozer’s good cooking. He promised himself that he would be bringing leftovers tomorrow. Quickly Marie returned, with a lunch bag, and a hot container.

“So Nurse Debbie said that was also a first for her. I see you decided on the cafeteria special, all I have to say about that is that the PBandJ is a very popular option of the kids!” with that Marie grabbed her lunch and set it out, she appeared to have a hamburger steak with grapes and carrot sticks.

“What do you have against cafeteria food?” Mac asked, was he stuck with another Bozer?

“Well, my taste buds work for one. Once upon a time, I was a student here, and let’s just say that after kindergarten I swore never to eat the food in here again, and so far so good. Plus I’m like uber picky so if I bring my lunch I know I’ll have something I like to eat.” Marie explained as she started to eat.

“See that makes sense. A friend of mine hates school food in general, it’s weird.” Mac was about to say more when he noticed a student hanging upside down in her seat. “What is that one’s name again?”

Marie looked to where he was pointing, sighed, and called out, “Athena, please sit up and eat your food. Do you need to sit with us again?”

Turning to Mac, “Jessie says that she usually had to come to the teacher’s table at least once a week. She needs a seatbelt for her stool.”

Lunch went by quickly with Mac only being able to half eat the somewhat edible food, he hated to admit that Bozer was right about the school food, but in his defense, he remembered it being better. He had to take into consideration that was well over fifteen years ago, and in a different state.

Since it had warmed up outside the kids were able to go to their playground for recess. Marie led them out the Pre-K’s fire door and down the paved walkway into the fenced enclosure. The kids went wild some playing on the pea gravel, others climbing on the large piece of equipment, while others played on the different cars, and still, others just sat and talked to a friend. Marie sent and sat in one of several chairs and he chose a chair beside her.

“This is probably the easiest part of the day. All we have to do is to make sure no one is throwing rocks or tackling another kid. If they ask to get a drink or use the bathroom remind them we just did that and if they insist I’ll let them in. This is a good time to check cell phones, cause the reception sucks inside.”

Two of the girls come over one of them holding a pail filled with rocks and the other little girl had a little red plastic shovel. “Would you like some ice cream? We have chocolate or vanilla.”

“I would like some chocolate, please Harley,” Marie said. The girls then turned to Mac.

“Same please.”

They dumped some of the rocks beside both of the teachers then went on to some of the other kids.

“Some of these kids have wonderful imaginations. One day they were pretending like the rocks were a pool full of sharks and they would dangle from the slide hollering until another student would pull them up. Then someone else would take their place. It was hilarious.”

The time went quickly with Mac and Marie chatting and the kids playing, soon it was time to go- to activity, which happened to be computer today. Mac was looking forward to seeing Riley. After successfully getting them to go to the bathrooms again they were in front of the computer lab door.

Riley opened it and the kids trooped in heading to their seats. “Please listen to Ms.” Marie paused and turned to Riley. Who supplied, “Ms. Riley, but since I’m also Ms. Davis I’ll answer to that too.”

“Remember, be good and listen to Ms. Riley, Mr. Mac will be here to let me know if ya’ll misbehave!” Marie gave a few of them the teacher look and then turned to Mac.

“You sure you’re good to stay? Y’all are both new, and I don’t want to overwhelm y’all.” Marie questioned.

“I’ve got it, no worries!” Mac said, and he did feel like he finally knew what he was doing.

“Ok, I’ll be in the room readin’ if you need anything.” With that Marie was gone.

Mac stepped back, and let Riley tell the students what their assignment was. Pretty soon the only sound that filled the air was the quiet clicking of keyboards. After Riley walked around the room once making sure all the kids were where they were supposed to be she come and sat down in the teacher’s chair beside where Mac was standing.

Mac started the conversation, “So how’s it gone this morning?’

Riley smiled, “Actually not too bad. The kids have been behaving, and this lesson plan gives you step by step instructions, so that wasn’t a big deal. Also to get more done, I air -gapped this computer, so the school system can’t trace anything I do on it.” She smiled proud of what she had accomplished.

Mac nodded, “But won’t the school system be suspicious of a computer suddenly going dark?”

“If it had they might be, but I just used her log-in on another computer. So if they check it, and I’m pretty sure they won’t, but it looks legit.”

“Great, so heard from Jack or Bozer any today?” Mac inquired.

“Ok, you are going to have to sit down. I’m getting neck strain with you standing up and me sitting down.” Riley suggested.

Mac sighed, and pulled out the seat, straddling it backward. “Better?”

“Much! Yeah, Jack’s poked his head in a couple of times, complaining about nasty children.” Mac laughed. “I check in with Bozer every once in a while. He was asking my preferences for chicken the last time I talked to him.”

“Chicken?”

“Yeah, I think he might be getting bored out there by himself.” Riley chuckled. “So how’s your day been?”

“You’ll never guess what I found in the cafeteria at lunch.” The two talked about their day until it was time to head back to the classroom. Soon enough they were back in the classroom and sitting on the rug for reading time. Then the phone rang since Marie was reading the book Mac went and answered it.

“This is Pre-K”

The voice on the other end of the phone paused for a second like they had dialed the wrong number. Mac was about to hang up when a ladies voice answered, "I’m sorry, I keep forgetting that Jessie is on maternity leave. This is Mrs. Sandy from the library, do any of your kids have money for the book fair?”

Mac thought for a second he didn’t have any clue if any did or not. “Let me ask Marie, and I’ll let you know.”

“That’s just fine dear.” Came the answer.

Mac covered the phone receiver and got Marie’s attention. “Book fair?” he questioned.

Marie nodded, and Mac held out the phone to her. Marie stepped through the kids and took the phone. “Hey. Yeah, a couple. Right now? K, I’ll send Mac with them. All right bye.” Marie hung up the phone. “So, would you mind taking the kids that have book fair money over to the book fair?”

Mac shook his head. “Thanks, I’ll get this finished, then set out their cots. So when they get back it’s straight to bed for them.” She then walked over to the desk and picked up a couple of envelopes, “Amy, Grayson, Maddie, Kaycen, and Rose please come line up with Mr. Mac, it’s time to go to the book fair.”

The kids quickly scrambled over to Mac and fell into a line.

“I wanna go to the book fair! That’s not fair!” whined one of the students whose name wasn’t called.

“Chris, if you brought money then you can go, since you didn’t you have to stay here. If you bring money tomorrow then you can go tomorrow, ok?”

The little boy didn’t say anything just huffed and sat there. Marie motioned for Mac to go ahead and take them. The trip to the library was quick and Mac was enjoying looking at all the different books. He was even thinking about purchasing a few himself when Mrs. Sandy called to him that he was wanted on the phone.

He answered with the phone with apprehension, “Hello?”

“Hey Mac, it’s Marie. So I need you to pick up that pair of underwear. It was Nick’s after all.” Mac choked back a laugh. “Sometimes I swear!”

“I’ll be sure to drop by the nurse’s office and grab them on the way back.” He said with a laugh.

“k, thanks.” Then she hung up.

Still grinning ear to ear he turned around and saw Mrs. Sandy waiting for an explanation right beside him. He filled her in on how he found a pair of underwear on the floor and that only now one of the kids had claimed it.

Mrs. Sandy shook her head, “I swear these kids are getting dumber by the day. I don’t know what to think anymore.” With that, she walked back into her office. Mac shook his head and went back to where the kids were looking. After mentally selecting a few books that he wanted to purchase, and helping the Pre-Kers find items, unfortunately, they mostly wanted the knick-nacks and not actual books. On his way out with the kids he saw a book titled ‘Delta Force’ by Jim Whiting, oh yeah, he would have to grab that one for Jack.

He stopped at Nurse Debbie’s office to retrieve the underwear and explain the situation. She handed them over in a shopping bag while laughing her head off. Soon the kids were settled down for naps, and Nick had his underwear back on.

“Like seriously, how does stuff like this happen? You and I were both watching him the whole time. How did he wiggle out of his underwear and leave it on the floor? I need answers!” Marie was still trying to figure out how Nick got out of his underwear. “Then not claiming them? I wouldn’t want to go commando, much less at school! Why do you think he did it?”

Mac shrugged not having a clue how to answer.

“Y’all share the same anatomy, wouldn’t that be uncomfortable?” Marie looked genuinely curious.

Mac thought back to some of the pranks that had been pulled on him and a couple of times he had to use his underwear to get out of a tight spot, “Speaking from experience, yeah it’s uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable. “

Marie grinned at him, a sparkle in her eye “From experience huh?”

Mac blushed, “You said you were going to show me how to do the folders.”

Marie sighed. They were behind the teacher’s desk while the kids napped. Well while some of the kids napped. She grabbed all the kids’ folders and showed him how to mark the behavior chart, change out the reading books, and check for parent notes. Before Mac knew it, it was time to put out the snacks, and get the kids up and ready to go home.

“You good with doing the buses, again?”Marie questioned as she woke the children up.

Mac nodded his consent as he stacked the cots up in the corner. Marie handed him another cot, “I like working with you, since you’re taller than me it’s easier for you to stack the cots.” She chucked, “It’s the little things that make the difference.”

The rest of the afternoon went by quickly, and Mac was on his way to the house. He intended to crash on his bed for a bit, not because it had been a bad day, but dealing with the kids all day had just sucked his energy. Riley pulled in right after him and disappeared into her bedroom the same time that Mac went into his and Bozer’s room. He didn’t mean to fall asleep but woke up when Bozer hollered that the food was ready.

Mac came out to a full on feast. There was roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, a salad, rolls, and even the promised brownies.

“Wow, Boze this looks amazing!” Mac didn’t even realize how hungry he was until he saw the food and his stomach growled loudly. Everybody laughed, and sat down.

“I may have gotten bored today and researched recipes. I got most of these off a site called Southern Living. So dig in!” Mac thought they looked like a pack of hungry wolves with how they descended on the food.

Riley’s eyes got big after her first bite, “This is amazing, Bozer! I think this is even better than the duck a l’orange you made after Mac’s date a couple of years ago, and that was amazing.”

Bozer smiled at the compliments, “It was nothing, you guys! But y’all on dish duty.”

Jack held up his hand, fork still clutched in his fist, “You ain’t got no arguments from me! I’d gladly do a million dishes for this kinda chow.” The rest of dinner went quickly and everybody hit the hay pretty early since they all had to be up the next day to do it all again.


	7. Back at it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I meant to update on Wed, but my sister and I took our mom to a TSO concert! Thanks to booksfallquietly for looking this over, and a huge thanks to everybody who took the time to read and review!

Marie was in a much better mood the next morning when Mac arrived. “See I can be a functional adult in the morning. Good news, the Lady Stallions won last night so they will be playing today for the state title! I know Casi’s super excited.”

“Oh yeah, I had forgotten why you were here.” Mac laughed, “Is her daughter one of the players?”

“Yep, it’s her senior year. You ready to take them to the classroom?”

Mac nodded and walked over to the sitting kids, “All right let’s line up.” A few seconds later he was leading them back to the classroom where they got unpacked and started playing with toys. When Benny walked in he went straight to Mac.

“Hey Benny, you need help again?” The little boy just nodded his head. Mac helped him unpack, and again the boy wanted to sit in Mac’s lap until Marie got back with the other kids. While they were sitting there Maddie came over at looked at Mac.

“My mommy picked her chin hairs last night.” Mac had to stifle a laugh. She then looked at his chin. “Do you pick your chin hairs?” Jack would have a field day with this question, Mac though.

“Well I have a lot of chin hair, so I just shave it every day,” Mac explained. Maddie looked disappointed and walked off.

In his lap, Benny muttered, “She’s weird.”

The morning went the same as it did the day before except for the kids doing an art project instead of the coloring sheet.

“Today we are going to paint candy corn just like this one.” Marie held up her example. The tip was white with orange in the middle and yellow on top. “Mr. Mac’s going to pass out the papers and I want you to use the paint I have set out and do it exactly as I have.”

Mac gave each student a paper with the lines already drawn on it. Soon enough the kids were messing it all up. “Ainsley, DO NOT paint your friends! Harley, please don’t mix the paints. Chris, there is a brush in each of the paints, don’t use the same one, and don’t put it in your mouth. Lorelei, this is not a nail salon, please quit painting your nails.” Were just a few of the things Marie asked the children not to do. They were just about finished when the fire alarm went off.

“Line up, right now! Drop everything, and get in a line in front of the fire escape door.” Marie ordered. As she headed to the door she pushed children towards the line then closed the door and turned off the lights, and grabbed some colored sheets beside the door. “Mac, you bring up the rear, make sure they stay in line and quiet.”

She then hurried to the front of the line and addressed the kids. “Ok stay with me, in a single file, and please be quiet.” She then opened the fire escape door and led then down the paved walkway with all the other exiting students. They walked to halfway down the playground then stopped. Marie got then to turn around facing the school, and help up the green card that she had picked up beside the door.

Mac asked, “What’s with the cards?”

“They are to indicate at a glance if there are any missing students. Green means everyone is present, red means missing student.” Mac nodded, it made sense. Jack then walked by looking at all the green cards for all the teachers in their little area. He spoke into his radio then walked off.

Marie asked, “Keep an eye on them; I’m going to ask another teacher a question.” Mac nodded his consent.

“Mason, please be quiet.” He instructed. When the kids didn’t listen he moved him. “Chris, shhhhhh.” The kid looked mad but stopped talking.

Benny broke the line, “Mr. Mac, I’m cold.” Now that Mac thought of it he wished he had grabbed his jacket.

“Me, too. Hopefully, we’ll be able to go back in soon. Go get back in line, please.” The little boy huffed his way to where he was.” The kids were getting restless. Marie walked back over.

“So the fire marshal is here, and this was only a drill. So hopefully, we’ll be let back in soon. It’s freezing out here, and I forgot to grab my coat.” Marie groused standing beside Mac. “Chris keep your hands to yourself.”

Finally, they saw the other classes head back in, and started in themselves. The kids were still excited about the fire drill, so it was hard to calm them down enough to finish what was left of the art project. So Marie declared it center time and handed out their center keys.

Mac had a seat beside Marie after they got all the kids settled into their centers. “So when the Fire Marshall comes to inspect the room, tell him that we are just the subs. We are responsible just for the kids.”

“Will he give us a hard time or something?” Mac questioned out loud.

“I don’t know what it is, but every time there is a new Fire Marshal, he seems bent on handing out the most infractions as possible. It’s like a rule or something; it’s frustrating as all get out.”

Marie was about to tell him something else when she saw Robyn rear back and hit Chris. “Robyn, come here!” Marie ordered.

“Why did you do that?”

“He was mean to me!” The little girl responded.

“And how was he mean?” Marie continued to question.

She just shrugged. Marie sighed, “Go sit in time out. We don’t hit our friends.” The little girl walked over to the time out chair. “Chris, come here please.”

The little blonde boy came straight over and gave Marie a hug. “Thanks for the hug, buddy. Are you ok?”

He nodded, his blonde bangs flopping up and down, and his little glasses went sliding down his nose. Mac smiled at the adorable little guy, and Chris also gave him a hug. “If you are ok, then you can go back to playing, ok?” He nodded again and left.

Talking to Mac Marie said, “He’s a little special, but a really sweet kid. Doesn’t talk much, but loves hugs, as you could tell.” Mac noticed Austin reaching for a toy that was put away. He opened his mouth to get onto him, but Marie beat him to it.

“Austin, lee-it-lone.” At least that’s what it sounds like to Mac. Austin looked at them but didn’t put his hand down. “Austin, I said leave it alone.” That time Marie pronounced all the words instead of running them together. He finally obeyed and left it alone.

“I swear the gumption of some of these kids; they try to see how many buttons they can push at once! If I had a penny for every time I told a kid to leave something alone, I would be rich! So you gunna dress- up tomorrow?”

It took Mac a second to get the change of topics, “Sure am, I actually like dress up days and am looking forward to it.” Even though he would never admit it to his friends, who would never let him live it down. The two chatted amicably until Mac realized it was just about lunch time.

Marie called out, “Time to clean up! It’s lunchtime!” That made the kids scramble faster and soon the room was back in order. They lined up and headed to the bathroom. While they were waiting on all the kids to finish one of the boys come over and started tapping on Mac’s leg. “Teacher, Teacher” he called.

“What do you need…” Mac trailed off not remembering his name.

Marie mouthed, “Kaycen”

“What do you need Kaycen?”

“One of de other boys dun pooped in the unal.” That got Marie’s attention and she comes over.

“Kaycen, can you repeat that please?” Marie requested.

“Yeah, one of de outter boys dunn popped in the unal!!” Mac frowned not understand the gibberish.

“Are you saying another student pooped in one of the urinals?” Marie questioned.

“Yea.”

“Thank you, go line up.” Marie told him; hen turning to Mac, “Oh dear Lord! I hate to ask, but could you please go check that out?”

Mac so didn’t want to do that, but sighed, and nodded his head. Sure enough one of the boys, Luke he thought, was buttoning his pants up in front of the urinal in question. “Luke, did you poop in the urinal?”

“Yea.”

Mac was confused as to what would possess a child to do that so he asked him why.

“Cause all the other potties were full, and I had to poop really bad.” The kid looked at Mac as if that was the most rational thing in the world. Mac sighed and went to notify Marie.

“So he did indeed poop in the urinal.”

Marie sighed, “I’m gunna call a janitor and he’s going to clean it up.” She pulled the walkie-talkie off her hip asking for a janitor. Soon Jack came around the corner. Marie explained the situation and called Luke over.

“Ok, Luke you are going to help Mr. Jack clean this mess up. We only pee in the urinal, ok?” Luke nodded his head and went into the bathroom with a grossed out Jack. Marie then instructed all the other students to line up, that they were almost late for lunch. Mac waited for Luke to get finished while Marie led the rest to lunch.

Jack came out of the bathroom, “Dude, that was gross! Give me a heads up next time so I can pretend to be busy.”

Mac gave him a look, “You know I’m going to have to tell Matty about this right?” Mac was fighting not to fall over laughing.”Maybe she’ll give you a second job as a janitor”

Jack tossed him a sour look, “Don’t you have a kid to take to lunch? And don’t forget I need help with that water fountain that I told you about yesterday.”

Mac nodded then squatted down next to Luke, “Next time are we going to poop in the urinal?”

Luke shook his head vigorously, “NO! That was really gross!”

“Good remember that ok? Let’s get to lunch.” Luke grabbed Mac’s hand and the two of them walked down to the cafeteria. Most of the other children already had their lunch trays and were eating.

Marie called to him as he walked in, “Let’s try not to find any underwear this time ok?”

Mac laughed, “Sounds like a plan! They quickly got the kids settled.

Marie asked, “Is it cool if I go heat my food up?”

“Sure, if you wouldn’t mind also heating mine up. It’s in a blue bag on the right.” Mac replied.

Marie smiled, “Already had enough of cafeteria food? And sure, how long?”

“Just a couple of minutes and my roommate made supper last night with plenty of leftovers for lunch today,” Mac stated.

When Marie got back carrying both their lunch bags she said, “You weren’t kidding were, you? This looks amazing! Oh, I also brought you something.” She handed him his food and a wrapped piece of chocolate cake. “I made that for church Sunday, I brought myself a piece, but totally forgot to include you a piece yesterday. I felt so bad that I saved my piece so I would be eating cake that you didn’t have a piece of.”

Mac was touched, that was very thoughtful of her. Lunch went by peacefully for them, only having to get onto the Pre-Kers a few times for getting up or not eating, while the kindergarteners went berserk. Mac noticed that it was raining outside, so Marie told him they would just have recess in the gym, but upon arriving at the gym it was occupied. Marie sighed, and said, “Well I guess we’ll have inside recess. Get ready to have stupid songs stuck in your head.”

Mac didn’t know what to think of that. Once back in the room, the kids got on the rug, and Marie pulled up gonoodle.com on the internet. There were a ton of songs and dances for the kids to participate in. Marie was right one of the songs ‘Pop-See-Ko’ stayed in his head thought the day. Thankfully they had library for activity, and Mac didn’t have to stay after dropping them off and purchasing those books he had his eye on, the two were on their way back to the room. Marie stopped him at one of the rooms, knocked and the teacher that had won the teacher of the year opened up.

“Hey, Sena, I brought Mac by to see if he could fix that microwave of yours. He worked a minor miracle on the projector in Jessie’s room yesterday.”

“Have at it. These little beasts dun have it all tored up, I doubt you could tear it up any more.” Sena showed Mac where the microwave in question was.

Mac looked the microwave over: the door leaned one way, the cover to the controls was off, and leaning to the left. He thought about it for a few minutes and looked around the room for materials he might be able to use. He grabbed some paperclips, some yarn from an art project, an abandoned pencil, some school glue, and pulled out his trusty knife. In just a few minutes he had everything working just the way it should.

Sena looked at him with wide eyes, “You are a miracle- worker! You’re not married, are you? Cause I would dump my husband for you! Just let me know if you’re interested, and we’ll work something out.”

Mac didn’t know how to take that, he thought she was kidding, but the sly wink she gave at the end gave him pause. Marie sent a glare at her friend, “She’s joking. RIGHT Sena!”

Her mouth said, “Sure am”, but her eyes said ‘heck no’

Mac quickly grabbed his bag of books and got out of there. When they got to the room Mac grabbed the book he bought for Jack, his lunch bag, and told Marie he needed to go do something real quick, but he would be back before it was time to fetch the kids. He made his exit and went on the hunt for Jack. He quickly finding him in the far side teacher’s lounge which was right next to the Pre-K room, eating his lunch by himself.

Mac handed Jack the book, “Got you a little something on your reading level, and where is this water fountain that needs my magical touch? Make sure to bring your cell phone, I might need a part out of it.” Mac was in a snarky mood after his meeting with Sena.

Jack kicked a chair out, “Hold your horses, I haven’t finished my lunch yet.” Jack glanced at the cover of the book he held and read the title. “‘Delta Force for Children’ Funny.” But he sat it in his lap. “Also, you aren’t getting my phone on this op. We’ve got a whole school full of supplies, I’m sure you’ll find something you could use instead.”

Mac flopped down in the chair looked at his watch, “The sooner I can look at that water fountain the better, we’ve got to go get the kids in about 30 minutes. Also, I got something for you.” He pulled out half the slice of cake Marie had given him at lunch. “Marie brought this for me, and I thought I would share. It’s on par with Granny Dalton’s.” The whole team knew Mac wasn’t much of a dessert eater, so when he pronounced a dessert good then everybody else took notice. Jack licked his fork clean and pulled the cake to him. He took a bite that forced Mac to say.

“Jack the face you’re making is making me very uncomfortable, so just stop.”

Jack didn’t answer instead he shoveled in another bite. After a couple more he smiled at Mac, “Ok you both are forgiven for the crap in the urinal earlier.” Another couple of mouthfuls and the cake was gone. “Hey Bud if she brings you any more pieces, please save me some. You’re right it reminded me of grandma’s cake back in Texas, and you know how much I love Grandma Dalton’s cake”

Oh, Mac did know, Jack would wax poetic about how good his Grandma Dalton’s cake was every time they had chocolate cake. “So where’s this water fountain and what’s wrong with it, exactly.”

Jack led the way out of the teacher’s lounge and up the hallway. “It keeps on leaking, Ricky told me that the other janitor who works as a handyman, who I have yet to meet, has worked on it, the school system repair people have worked on it, but it keeps on leaking. Right now I think they are thinking about just buying a new one.” They stopped between the kindergarten rooms, where there were two water fountains side by side, a smaller one and a slightly taller one. Jack indicated it was the smaller one that had the problem.

Mac pulled the front cover off and sat in front of it. He examined all the pipes and connections, then thought of something easily missed. It was indeed the problem. “Hey Jack, I need a paper towel and some duct tape.” Jack quickly retrieved the items. Mac wiped the pipe off and duct tapped it, then put the cover back on. Standing up he explained the problem, “The intake pipe in the back had a tiny hole in it. The duct tape should hold it until it is replaced with a new pipe.”

Jack grinned, “I knew you could do it!” After glancing at his watch, “You still have fifteen minutes before you go grab the kids!” After bumping knuckles, the two went their ways. Walking back into the classroom Mac saw that Marie had her feet propped up eating grapes with reading a book. Now wanting to scare her he cleared his throat.

Marie looked up from her book, “Hey Mac!”

“What’cha reading?” He inquired always on the lookout for a good book.

She held up the cover for him to look at. “It’s the latest in James Rollins’ Sigma Force series, ‘_The Demon Crown’_. I love the history and action in the books, but the science freaks me out a bit. If you like any of those you might enjoy it.” Marie marked her place and handed the book over for Mac to look at. He didn’t get to read for pleasure much, but this might be a series that he liked. He noted the author for future reference.

“Sit a spell, we got a few more minutes before we got to go get the young ones.” They both sat in silence for a bit before Marie broke the silence, “So how’s your mom ‘n them?”

Mac burst out laughing, “Do people really say that?”

Marie looked at him bewilderedly, “Yeah?” Then a second later, “Oh yeah, I forget you’re from California.” She said California like was a bad word. “By the way, I don’t have dirt floors in my house.”

Now Mac was confused, “OK?”

Marie sighed, “Well the last time I was in California, which was when I was like 5, this dude when he heard we were from the South asked if we had dirt floors, and if this was the first time I had worn shoes. He was serious, I think.” She chuckled, “Man, you should have seen my, mom, she was spittin’ mad.” With a glance at her watch, she said, “So we’re going to have to table this discussion till after we go get the kids.”

They quickly got the kids back to the room and on the carpet for reading time. Marie sat in a chair on the carpet, while Mac sat on a table behind the kids so he could keep a better eye on them. “Today we are going to read’ Five Little Pumpkins’” Marie began. She went over what the cover was, who the illustrator was, and who the author was. Mac was impressed by the level of knowledge these kids knew, and he only had to get onto a couple of the kids. Soon story time was over and they had a bathroom break and nap time.

“Hey Mac, because of what happened at lunch would you stand just inside the boy’s bathroom to supervise, and I’ll do the same for the girls?” Marie asked as they lined up for the bathrooms. Thankfully this visit didn’t end in a visit form a janitor, and soon all the kids were on their cots, at least laying mostly still. Mac and Marie were back behind the desk.

“Ok, so back to how we talk.” Marie brought up.

Mac cut in, “Let me apologize, I have this friend from Texas, and well he likes to try to trick me into believing that certain saying are real when I’m sure they are not.”

Marie chuckled, “I would err on the side of it probably is. My grandmother’s favorite expression was, ‘my hair looks like a stump full of granddaddies’ That probably sounds ridiculous to people not from around here, but it’s how we’ve always talked. I’m not sure where the saying came from, but the study of regional dialects is truly fascinating.” Marie was interrupted from further discussion by the walkie-talkie, “The game is on”

“Oh, shoot!” Marie lunged for the computer to pull it up so they could watch the high school girls play for the state volleyball championship. Soon the game was playing on low because they didn’t want to wake up the kids, but one little boy, Greyson kept on popping up beside Mac to watch.

Marie finally asked, “Greyson, are you gonna lay down at all.”

He shook his head no, “I wanna see Haylie play!”

Marie explained to Mac, “Haylie is his older cousin.” Then turning to Greyson, “It’s ok buddy, pull you up a chair beside Mr. Mac, and you can watch with us.”

The game was close, but the Lady Stallions were up by five, with only ten minutes left on the clock, but it was time to start walking the kids up and handing out snacks. Mac suggested, “Why don’t we turn the volume up, and put it on the projector?”

Marie’s eyes lit up. “You really are a genius!” So that’s what they did, and the whole Pre-K class got to see the girls win the state championship. One of the kids called out, “I see Mrs. Casi!” Sure enough, Mrs. Casi could be seen hugging who Mac supposed was her daughter.

Back at the house, Mac asked Riley if they watched the game in her room. “Oh yeah, the teacher came in and asked if we could just pull up the game, so the whole class plus some other teacher who couldn’t get her computer to connect were in there. It was a really good game!”

That night they all chipped in on making supper, Bozer made the spaghetti sauce and the garlic bread, Jack was in charge of the meatballs and noodles, and Riley made an excellent salad, and Mac who was notoriously bad at cooking, set the table. At supper, they talked about where they were on the case.

“So did y’all hear about my day?” Jack asked.

“Oh, come on Jack, not while we’re eating,” Mac whined, knowing full well what his friend wanted to bring up.

“Tell us more!” Bozer asked with glee.

“So there I was innocently sweeping the hallways when I hear a call for a janitor at the big bathroom. Me being the wonderful janitor that I am rushed to the call.” Mac groaned and planted his face firmly in his hands. “What was waiting for me, but my good buddy Mac.” Riley and Bozer both turned to look at the person in question. Who just shakes his head. Jack continued his story, “So the sub, Marie, explains to me that one of the boys crapped in one of the urinals.” Both Riley and Bozer promptly break out in laughter. “Yeah, you could say it’s been a shitty day for me!”

“Well, Mac you were the talk of the town after lunch,” Bozer informed them over a bite of spaghetti.

Mac stopped the bite of salad he was about to eat. “I was?”

“Yeah man, apparently you fixed some microwave, and well I don’t know if I want to be you tomorrow. Some of the other teachers have found some items that need to be fixed, and I think they are going to be hunting you down tomorrow.” Bozer informed him.

“Great, I knew that would bite me in the butt.” Mac groused. “Thanks for letting me know Boze. So have we learned anything pertinent to this case?”

“That would be a big negatory. I can tell you who’s having an affair, which kids are struggling in what, and which teachers need their medicine upped, but there has been no chatter on illegal drugs or counterfeit bills.” Bozer explained.

Riley threw in her two cents into the conversation, “Well if we don’t get some workable intel soon Matty might just pull us out and haul in everybody for questioning.”

Jack jumped in, “What our problem is, is there are too many suspects. It could be just about anyone, even some of the parents or older students. I’ve been trying to go through any suspicious- looking paper and eavesdrop on all conversations, but haven’t learned anything either, besides for Joanie loves Chachi. Tomorrow, let’s make a list of people we think could a pull this off, b, could be into the drug scene, and c is in a position to do this without raising any suspicions. Sound good?” Everybody agreed, and the conversation turned to more normal topics.


	8. A new perspective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Booksfallquietly for looking this over, and as always I don't own MacGyver!

Even though it was Riley’s third day on the job she still wasn’t sure she was doing a good job. She sank into her chair once she got into the classroom. On the walk down the hallway all the adults had greeted her with a cheery ‘Good Morning’, and not wanting to be rude she reciprocated. Sinking into the chair felt like coming home, taking a few deep breaths and a couple of drinks of her perfect coffee prepared by Bozer she started the day by booting up all the computers.

Since being here she may have given them some subtle software upgrades, nothing the school system would notice, but it would help her and the school out. All the computers were booted up, but one. She just couldn’t get it to start up despite using all the tricks she knew. So she decided to see if Mac could help her. She knew how to work computers; he knew how to put them together.

Picking up the room phone she realized she had no idea what the number was for Mac’s room. Looking around she found a paper beside the phone with all the teacher’s numbers on it, the only problem Riley didn’t know the teacher’s name that Mac was filling in for, then she remembered he was there for Jessie, so she scoured the list until she found her name and dialed the number.

“Hello, Pre-K” came the voice over the phone, which Riley easily recognized as Mac’s.

“Mac, it’s Riley.”

“Hey, Riley, what do you need?” it sounded like he covered the phone with his hand and next she heard. “Athena, get off the table.”

Riley laughed, it sounded like a circus down in Pre-K, “So one of my computers is acting up, I think it’s a hardware problem instead of a software problem and was hoping that you might have some time to come look at it?”

Mac sighed, “I might be able to when I take the coolers back to the cafeteria, maybe about 8:30 or so?” Again there was a muffled talking, “Please wait till I’m off the phone.”

Riley smiled she could always depend on Mac. “I’ll have a class, but that would be great, thanks!”

More muffled yelling. “No problem Riles, but I got to go. One of the kids seems intent on murdering herself.” He then hung up. Riley was so glad that she got the computer teacher’s job, ‘cause Jack and Mac’s jobs sounded a lot less fun.

She had 8th -grade first thing so she pulled up the Tynker website and selected the beginner course for 8th -grade coding. She wished that she had had this when she was in elementary school, but technology changes all the time. By the time she had all the computers ready to go, the kids were standing in a group at the door waiting to come in.

She opened the doors and instructed them to take their normal seats, it was only then that she realized that today was the start of Red Ribbon Week, and she had forgotten the simplest day, maybe she could have Bozer grab her that red jacket from the house, but she quickly dismissed the idea. Once the kids got settled, she started the introduction speech she had been giving every class.

“Hi, my name is Riley Davis. You may call me either Ms. Riley or Ms. Davis, I don’t care which one. I am filling in while Mrs. Davis is away. We will be starting something new on the computer and I will be checking that you are doing the work you are supposed to be doing. I also will be checking to make sure you are in your assigned seat. If you work quietly for the class period I will let you have free time for the last ten minutes of class. Does everybody understand?”

All the kids nodded, so she called roll to check to make sure they were sticking to their seating assignments. She only had to move three people, which was an improvement over the other 8th grade class, where she had to move what seemed like half of the class. Soon the lab descended into silence as the kids worked hard on their assignments.

She was walking around to check on everybody when she saw Mac approach the door. She motioned him in so as not to disturb the students who were working.

“So which computer is it that you need my expertise on? Mac asked.

“Haha, you are always telling that story about how your dad made you build your computer as a child, so I figured you might be able to figure out why this one wasn’t working. Jack’s suggestion of waving my fingers didn’t work.” Riley replied as she led him to the one in question. One of the 8th -grade girls was sitting beside the computer and gave Mac a sly smile as he sat down to see what he could do.

Riley made the turn around motion at her and the girl angrily turned back to her computer. Mac had the thing apart in just a few minutes, and in no time had found the problem. “One of the wires is loose and shorting out. Do you have some tape or gum would work too?” Riley rummaged thought the desk, no tape, but she did find a stick of gum which she handed to Mac. He chewed it up and used it to fix the loose wire; after assembling it, the computer booted back up no problem.

“Thanks, Mac! I really appreciate it.” Riley said.

“Anything to get out of that madhouse we’re calling Pre-K. I swear they weren’t like this the past two days. I don’t know if it’s because Mrs. Casi is back, or the start of Red Ribbon, or what. Think Matty would approve hazard pay?”

“Nope, now go before Mrs. Casi puts out an APB on you and has Jack drag you back. He’d do it too.”

Mac looked at her ruefully, “Yeah, he would wouldn’t he?” It was a rhetorical question. With a sigh, he got up, “See you later.”

As soon as he exited the door the girl sitting beside where he had been sitting raised her hand.

“Ms. Riley, who was that hottie? He your boyfriend?” Riley could just see the hearts in the young girls’ eyes.

“No, that’s the new Pre-K teacher, and he is not my boyfriend. I just heard that he had a knack for fixing things.” She wanted to bury that idea, deep.

The girl, Riley thought her name might be Brittany sighed then asked, “Think he might be into younger women?”

Riley knew her eyes almost bugged out, “Work!” Inside she chuckled, she couldn’t wait to tell Mac one of the 8th graders was hot for him, but she needed to tell Jack first!

Going over how the kids had done on their first coding exercise, Riley was pretty impressed. The subsequent classes did almost as well as the 8th grade did. Soon enough it was lunchtime. She was looking forward to lunch today, she had gotten to know the other teachers she ate with and had good food to eat, thanks to Bozer. The past two days she had eaten the cafeteria food, and while it was better than prison food, Bozer’s leftovers were better by a mile.

She greeted the other four teachers already in the lounge and put her spaghetti in the microwave to heat up. She had thought about getting some of the sweet tea again, but it was like drinking syrup to her, so she had grabbed a Sun Drop on the way to the lounge. In the lounge, was the music teacher, Mrs. Greaves, the librarian Ms. Summers and the second- grade teachers Mrs. Renay and Ms. Goode.

Riley found that she liked being able to sit and talk with her co-workers, at the Phoenix, it was either grab the food and get back to work, or she sat with her team. Mrs. Greaves was already talking about the musical she was directing for Christmas which was coming up in a couple of months, while Ms. Summers was telling about how the book fair was doing.

“So did Mrs. Davis tell you about gonoodle?” Mrs. Renay asked.

Riley thought for a minute, she couldn’t place that particular website. “Not that I know of.”

Ms. Goode smiled, “It’s a great website to get the kids up and moving, so it might be something you would be interested in at the end of class. It has a lot of songs and dances, BUT some of those songs are earworms, you’ll be singing it all the time.”

Mrs. Greeves weighed in, “You are so right! I played Pop-See-Ko for my class, and I thought I was going to have to find something to scrub it out of my head. I was humming that dang song for days afterward!”

“But y’all got to admit, it’s cute,” Renay said.

Ms. Summer said, “Well so is a poison dark frog.”

Everybody turned to look at her, “Sorry, we’re reading about Amazonian jungle animals.” Ms. Summers explained.

Riley asked, “But the kids like it?”

“Kindergarten to about fourth or fifth grade does, and eighth grade does. For them everything all is new again, it’s weird.“ Mrs. Greaves explained. From there the conversation went all over the place and resulted in the second -grade teachers being late to pick up their kids.

Riley wasn’t looking forward to the after- lunch crowd, seeing as how it was kindergarten. The other classes had only done ok on the Tynker website. Riley figured she needed to keep the work consistent with the other classes, but if she was here next week she would go back to what Mrs. Davis had left for them, which was watching PBS videos.

Mrs. Kim’s room was waiting for her at the door when she got there. Kim looked like she was ready to run away. “Good luck with them, it’s been a day.” With that, she walked off. Oh boy!

“Ok go to your seats, sit down, and wait for me to tell you what to do.” She instructed. She was about to give her introduction speech when she noticed that one kid was already playing away.

“Excuse me, little girl with the pigtails, we’re not supposed to be touching the computers yet,” Riley instructed.

The little girl beside her piped up, “That’s Aileen, she don’t listen good.” Several of the other kids agreed with her. Riley sighed, and moved the mouse away from the girl and removed the headphones she had already put on.

Once she had all the students’ attention she gave her speech and told them how the new program worked. She was kept on her toes for the next thirty minutes because the kids kept on clicking things they weren’t supposed to. One kid somehow managed to open the operating system, but thankfully Riley stopped him before any damage was done. She finally had enough and pulled up that gonoodle website up that they had been talking about at lunch. The kids cheered loudly

. As she walked by one of the students she smelled something. Taking a closer sniff, she realized that it was urine and that a little boy had wet his pants. Not knowing what to do she decided to go call the teacher. When she didn’t get an answer, she decided to try the school nurse. She hadn’t talked to Nurse Debbie directly, but from what Riley had heard she sounded nice. The nurse picked up on the second ring.

“Nurses’ office. How can I help you?”

“Uhh, hi. This is Ms. Riley, the new computer teacher. I think one of the kindergarteners has wet his pants, I can’t get a hold of his teacher, and I’m not sure what to do.”

“Let me guess, is it Brandon?” Riley wasn’t sure but thought that sounded right.

“I think so”

“Ok, go ahead and send him to me. I’ll send a janitor down there to disinfect the chair he was in ok?” Nurse Debbie offered.

“That would be great, thank you.” Riley was relieved, it was easier than she expected it to be.

“Hey, Brandon,” Riley called, and indeed the little boy came straight over. “You need to go to the Nurse’s office.”

He smiled a vacant smile, and just walked out the door. A few minutes later Jack showed up to clean up the chair.

“Yesterday it was Mac with poop in the urinal, today it’s you with pee in the seat. I don’t want to know what tomorrow will hold.” Jack made a stank face while he doubled gloved to clean the urine up.

“Seriously, Jack I’ve seen you handle someone dying better than this.” Riley was amused at Jack squeamishness.

“I’ll have you know I was trained to handle someone dying, this,” He swung his arms to encompass the chair. “Not so much.” When he was finished he told her, “Have fun with your pee seat, I’ve got to get back to moping bathrooms!” Only Jack could look happy to be mopping a bathroom.

The rest of the day passed with nothing more interesting than a couple of kids being checked out early. It was time for her to be on car rider duty. A couple of the kids came and hugged her before getting in line, which made her feel like maybe she was doing some good here, besides for trying to find a counterfeiter with possible tries to a drug cartel.

When she finally got back to the house, she walked in and found Mac laid out on the couch.

“I didn’t think that the school day was ever going to end.” He complained. He sat up eyeing her, “The first two days lulled me into a false sense of security. I vote we say we tried our best and it’s time to leave.” He then flopped down and put his arm over his eyes.

“You really feel that way?” Riley asked already knowing the answer.

“No.” It came out muffled from the arm over his face. Riley had Mac in a little bit better mood by the time Bozer and Jack rolled in.

“So I vote for pizza for supper tonight,” Jack suggested, “I don’t think any of us feel like cooking tonight.” He was also sitting on the couch with Mac’s feet in his lap.

“Speak for yo self! But I do have to admit pizza does sound good, but don’t worry about leftovers, Bozer’s gonna make your lunches, Bozer style.”

“I’m afraid to ask what Bozer style is, but I’ll eat it,” Jack said.

“That’s not saying much, you’ll eat just about anything.” Mac countered. “I seem to recall one time in Afghanistan that you….” Jack cut him off with a look.

“We agreed to never talk about that again. Right, Angus.” Jack threatened.

Laughing he answered, “Talk about what?”

While they were waiting on the pizza to be delivered, they roused themselves up enough to go over who they considered the prime suspects.

“So I’m thinking it is possibly one of the people that deal with the money. So that would be the treasurer, Angie.” Jack surmised.

Mac added to that, “It could also be the cafeteria manager, she would deal with all the cash they take in during the day. It would be easy to swap, so that would be Stacey.”

Bozer added, “It also could be anybody in the office, Angie leaves her office quite often and everybody has access to it. The vice-principal goes in there quite often so it could be her too. Anybody else we can think of that has access to the cash easily?”

“How about the kids that collect the teacher’s folders from each classroom in the mornings?” Mac asked. “I’m always running into them when I go to drop off the coolers.

“Does anybody know their names?” Riley questioned. Nobody answered.

Mac said, “Tomorrow I’ll talk to them and see what their name is, then Bozer you can look up their parents and run them.”

Jack nodded, “It sounds like we are going somewhere, so Matty won’t yell at us.”

Mac laughed. Jack sighed, “Your right, but when has that ever stopped Matty from yelling at me.”

“To be fair, you usually deserve it ,Jack,” Riley said.

“Et tu Brute?” Jack gave her his best- wounded look. The doorbell rang signaling that the pizza was there. “For that, you little miss get to go get the pizza.”

Riley rolled her eyes but went to get the pizzas anyway. They were still finishing up when Matty video chatted, asking for an update. Mac presented what they had so far, and the leads they would be following up tomorrow. While she didn’t exactly look happy, they also didn’t get yelled at, so it was counted as a win. Everybody went to bed with a sense of maybe they were finally getting somewhere.


	9. Stop, it's janitor time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Booksfallquietly for looking this over, and as always I don't own MacGyver!

There were some days that Jack loved his job, and then there were days like this; where pure pandemonium and chaos ruled. Today was PJ day, parent-teacher conference day, they were having a guest speaker, and giving out sale stuff for a past fundraiser, it was an all hands on deck situation. Jack hadn’t quit moving since he set foot in the school that morning at five, and it was only 8:00.

He was getting the hall garbage cans into place for the kids who ate breakfast in the classroom when he almost ran into Mac. The kid was struggling to get the two coolers, a folder, and a large laundry basket filled with items. Jack was pretty sure Mac couldn’t see over the stuff in the laundry basket.

“Need some help there bud?” Jack asked as he steadied his friend. The blonde head poked over the top of the items.

“That would be great, Jack. Thanks.” Mac transferred the basket to Jack, and the two made their way down the hall passing the two girls who were just beginning to collect the teacher’s folders.

“I’m planning on getting their names when I head back down to the classroom. Then Riley and Bozer can get started on checking them out.” Mac filled Jack in.

“Sounds like a plan. Want me to take this and that folder to the office for you?” Mac gladly handed over the folder.

“Thanks, man,” Mac said over his shoulder as he turned to head into the cafeteria. Jack turned to the left and maneuvered the office door open. Handing the folder to Janie he asked her where he should put the auction items. Before she had a chance to answer Mrs. Byrne swept in and answered for her.

“That is such a great idea! You can grab one of the carts and go see of any of the other grades need help transporting their class boxes for the auction tonight. Once you have gotten all of them, just put them in my office so I can look them all over! Thank you!” With that order, she swept back out of the office.

Setting the Pre-K’s basket down beside the door he asked, “So where are the carts at?” Making his way down the hall he found that most teachers either hadn’t finished putting theirs together or had already taken it. So he only had two grade levels, when he stopped at Mrs. May’s room to get the items for kindergarten.

Mrs. May wasn’t there that day, instead Marie was subbing for her. She was clad in her PJ’s unlike most of the teachers, including Jack and Mac. Riley however had been all for wearing her PJ’s to work.

Jack rapped lightly on the door to announce his presence as Marie was busy hot gluing some artwork to display outside. Marie turned around smiling, as she saw Jack.

“Man I am happy to see you!” Jack was taken aback at the enthusiastic greeting. “I’ve burned the crap out of my hand, by dripping hot glue on myself. Would you mind watchin’ the kids for a second while I run to go get an ice pack from the nurse? They should all stay in their seats, and do their mornin’ work.”

“No problem!” He could rest his tootsies for a minute because the rest of the day was shaping up to be just as crazy as the first few hours.

“Thanks, I’ll be right back.” Marie then hurried out the door and down the hallway. Jack sank into the teacher’s chair to observe the kids at work. One of the little boys had to come to show Jack how his work was progressing, which inspired another one to come show him. Finally, after four others started to make their way up, he reminded them that Ms. Marie had instructed them to stay in their seats. Thankfully that worked, and they were all quietly working when Marie came back with an ice pack clutched in her hand.

“Thank you, Mr. Jack.” She said.

“Think that you might live?” he joked. She moved the ice pack to show him the dime- sized place on the palm of her hand. He let out a low whistle, “That is a second- degree burn.”

Marie looked at him frowned, then at her palm. “Really? How can you tell?”

“By the fact that it’s already blistered; I have a friend who burned the heck out of his hands, and the paramedic told him that if they blister immediately that is a sign of a second- degree burn.” Jack liked being the one to impart some knowledge for a change.

“Well dang, guess I better stay away from hot glue next time. Thanks for the help. I know y’all are pretty busy today. You takin’ up the class boxes?” Marie questioned.

“Yep, you need yours taken to the office?” Jack offered.

“That would be great, and I could also use a hand to put the finishing touch on it.” She motioned the opened cellophane bag with lots of goodies inside. “If you could either hold this down or tape it, I would appreciate it.”

“No problem, just tell me what you need me to do,” Jack said.

“Thanks! You know, wasn’t it nice of them to let me, the sub, put this together for them.” Marie chuckled, “Ok so I may have volunteered.” She got the bag the way she liked it. “If you could put your hand here.” She indicated where she wanted him to hold it. “I’ll get it taped up and ready to go!” They made quick work of the bag and soon it was on his cart.

“Thanks, Jack! If there’s anything I can do to help, just let me know.” Marie said.

Jack then remembered the delicious cake from the other day, the one that reminded him of Grandma Dalton’s. “You wouldn’t happen to have any more of that delicious chocolate cake left would you?” It was a long shot, but as he always told Mac, it never hurt to try.

“I’m not going to even ask how you knew I was giving away cake. I just happen to have the last slice that I was going to give another teacher, who isn’t here today.” She disappeared behind the door and reappeared with a foil- wrapped package. “So this is yours! I hope you enjoy.”

“Oh, I will!” With that, he was on his way again. After one last pass through the school, he took his load of items to the office. After unloading, Janie stopped him.

“Could you go get the new computer teacher and both of y’all meet our guest speaker over in the gym to get set up for the program?” Janie asked.

Happy to be able to work with Riley he replied, “No problem.”

Upon arriving at the computer lab, Jack found Riley typing furiously. “You find something on the two girls?”

Riley glanced up while she continued to type, “Bozer’s running that right now, this is something else I’m working on. Do you need something or did you stop by just to bug me?”

“Work visit. They need us in the gym to get set up for the assembly.” Jack informed her

With a growl, she hit a few more keys then stood up. “Lead the way.”

Jack arched his eyebrow at her, “Do you need to stay? I can cover for you.” He didn’t want Riley to miss anything important.

She smiled, “I’m good, thanks.”

“All right, let’s boogie,” Jack said as he leads her down the hall. Riley wore a fitted top, with lose pajama bottoms, a housecoat, cat slippers, and had finished her look off with a messy bun. “You know who the speaker is?”

Riley shrugged, “I’m not sure, but I think it might be some pageant winner.” That got Jack’s attention. Riley looked at him, “Do not hit on her!”

“Hey, I can’t help it, I’m ruggedly handsome.” Jack retorted. Riley muttered something under her breath. “What was that sweetheart?”

“Nothing”, was the breezy reply.

“Suuuurrrrrreeeeee.” He drew it out, and opened the door to the gym for Riley: in the gym stood a beautiful young lady with glossy brown hair in her mid- twenties. She had on a red dress and tall black boots, and Jack was instantly smitten. He put his best smile on his face and went to introduce himself.

“Hi, I’m Jack Dalton, one of the janitors here at Lawrence Elementary.” He stuck his hand out for her to shake.

“A pleasure to meet you. I’m Miranda Flowers, Miss. Tennessee 2015. I’m here for the drug-free program.”

Jack liked that she had a firm grip. He turned to Riley, “This is Riley Davis, she is our computer teacher slash tech support. What will you need for your talk?” Jack was back into business mode.

Miranda walked over to where she had set her things down on a folding chair picked up her laptop and brought it over to Riley and Jack. “If y’all could get a PowerPoint from this running that would be great, but the only item I really need is a microphone.“ Riley took the laptop and went to go get that setup, while Jack opened the closet with the sound equipment in it. Riley came over and set up the rest of the sound system while he helped out, mostly by chatting with Miranda and keeping out of the way.

When the students started coming in Jack had to ask since he had a chance, “Would you mind if we got a selfie?”

Miranda grinned, “Of course not doll!” She then leaned in for the picture. Jack quickly snapped it. Miranda looked at it, “Ok, we need one more.” She then leaned over to plant a smooch on his cheek, another great pic!

“Thanks, Miranda!” Jack was all smiles. When Mrs. Byrne came in Miranda went over to greet her, and Riley moved back to his side.

“You should make that your screen saver, you know the one where she’s kissing you. Oh, I need to send it to Matty, she’ll love it!” Riley teased.

“You’re just jealous that I got my picture made with the beauty queen, and you didn’t.” Jack was about to say more when the principal came over the microphone and asked everyone to settle. They were getting ready to begin. The last class was Mac’s Pre-K class, they quickly sat down, and the program got started. Miranda talked about how her life had been affected by drugs growing up, and once she started doing beauty pageants it became her platform. She spoke from the heart, and Jack had to say he was impressed at the job she did.

Once the gym was empty Jack set to cleaning the floor in preparation for the laying out of the sale items the kids had to pick up. When the gym was clean Jack moved onto sweeping the hallways to make sure the school was presentable for the parents tonight. He smiled seeing all the artwork and projects hanging in the hallways. He thought it felt homier.

Near the big bathrooms he noticed Mrs. Sena standing with several of her students with a frown on her normally jovial face. “Everything ok?” Jack questioned.

“Not really.” Was the hoarse answer.

The little girl standing at the front of the line volunteered, “Mrs. Sena losted her voice yellin at Kyler.”

Sena ignored the little girl. “Could you please yell at my kids and tell them we are late for activity? I am leaving right now.”

“Sure.”

Sena looked relieved. Jack strode over to where the kids were leisurely washing their hands. “Mrs. Sena’s class is leaving now.” None of the kids acted like they heard him. So this time he decided to use his ‘soldier’ voice. “Mrs. Sena’s class is leaving, NOW!” That made them scurry like ants in a kicked anthill. He walked back to Sena.

“Thank you. If you feel like yelling at little brats today, just stick your head in my classroom.”

“Will do.” He chuckled as he started sweeping the other hallway. Jack was lost in his thoughts wondering how far away lunch was when his walkie-talkie went off.

“We need a janitor in the Pre-K room.” Jack groaned, picked up the walkie, and responded, “Ok, I’m on my way.”

The voice came again, “It’s a number four.”

“ten-four.” Jack was pretty sure a number four was vomit, but it could be pee, so he just took the whole trolley.

He met Casi coming down the hallway with a pale- faced kid, and another one trailing behind them. “This one puked, sorry. We tried to get to the garbage can in time, but at least it’s on the tile floor, and not the carpet.” She barely showed down to depart the info, before they were down the hall, heading to the nurse’s office, he hoped.

Upon arriving in the Pre-k room Jack saw that Mac had all the kids at their seats with some animated movie on that mostly had them entranced. Mac was leaned against the counter just inside the door waiting for him to arrive.

“It’s right over there,” Mac said pointing past the rug.

“I know how you feel about puke, so just take it easy; I’ve got it from here.” The kid was a sympathetic punker so Jack wanted him as far away from the vomit as possible. Once Mac was taken care of, Jack sprinkled the stuff that looked like kitty litter, waited a minute then swept it up, and disinfected the spot. Jack was just about done when the phone rang.

“This is Pre-K” Mac answered, then, “Uh-huh. Ok, yeah I’ll do that. Bye” Then he hung up the phone. Mac motioned Jack over, “So both the kids that Casi took up to the nurse’s office are going home. They both have a fever. Would you mind taking their backpacks up to the office for me?”

“No problem, Bud. You got it from here?” Jack just wanted to make sure that Mac was ok.

“Yeah, I’m fine, they are much better today, and ‘Toy Story’ seems to fascinate them. I’m going to go pack their backpacks up.” Mac then walked to the back of the room selected the backpacks, and put their folders into the backpacks then grabbed their coats and handed all of that to Jack.

Jack wasted no time in getting to the office with the kid’s stuff. He had no sooner stepped out of the nurse’s office and into the teacher’s lounge when Mrs. Byrne spied him.

“Oh good!” She exclaimed, “I have something that I need for you to do. Do you remember that cart you used this morning?” She didn’t give him enough time to confirm or deny before she went on, “I need you to take it to the gym and help sort fundraising orders.” As suddenly as she had appeared she was gone. Jack sighed and repeated to himself that lunch was soon.

He found the SRO officer, and several of the assistants hard at work. Jack helped in there till it was time for his lunch break. He grabbed his lunch bag out of the far-side lounge and opened it to see what Bozer had packed for him. He was pleasantly supposed to find an adult’s version of a Lunchable, a couple of slices of cheese, ham, some apples, and fancy crackers. Bozer was getting good at this! He walked to the Pre-K room where Ricky, Casi, and Mac were waiting for him. He hardly had time to eat his lunch before the walkie-talkie was calling a janitor to the first- grade room; someone was bleeding.

And on the day went, when it was finally time to leave, he didn’t hang around like he usually did afraid that someone would find him something to do, but got on out of there and back to the house. He figured that he might have time for a quick nap before Riley was done for the day.

He woke up to Mac staring down at him. “Have a nice nap old man?” Mac joked.

“Shut up, I’m sure there is a study somewhere that tells the benefits of napping,” Jack said as he stretched out his muscles.

“Well actually, in the study”

Jack cut Mac off with a glare. Mac just chucked and went silent. Jack frowned, “I thought you were going to have to stay for the Parent- Teacher Conference?”

Mac shook his head, “Casi asked Mrs. Byrne, and she said I didn’t have to unless I wanted to. So I left. Plus some of the looks the mom’s were giving me made me really uncomfortable.”

Jack laughed, “You lady killer you!”

Mac rolled his eyes and ignored his friend; he turned his attention to Riley.

Riley was removing her shoes on the armchair that she usually sat in. “That place was a madhouse today. They even had me sorting items in my free periods. I’m so glad we didn’t have to stay.” Jack and Mac heartily agreed.

“Hey, Bozer,” Jack called. Bozer stuck his head up from under the counter in the kitchen so he could see into the living room. “Are you cooking tonight or we ordering out. I think all three of us are gassed out.”

“I’ve got supper tonight, it’s a simple one-sheet shrimp and sausage boil with corn and potatoes.” Bozer looked proud of himself.

“Now that sounds good!” Riley exclaimed. The three of them relaxed while Bozer worked on supper, and soon they had their plates filled with food.

“Not that I’m complaining about the delicious suppers and the packed lunches, but where is this coming from Bozer?” Riley questioned.

Bozer blushed faintly, “Well y’all are in school all day, and all I’m doing is surveillance, and well it gets boring fast.”

“You need a butt pillow and some good tunes,” Jack interjected. “I’ll put it on your Christmas list.”

Bozer continued, “So I may have gotten on Pinterest and found enough recipes, and ideas to keep me occupied forever. Plus, it makes me feel like I am contributing ok?”

“Well Boze, this is amazing, as always! And thank you for lunch, I may have to concede that you have a point about the cafeteria.” Mac said. The group laughed, it was a big deal for Mac to concede a point.

“So did we get anywhere with the two office folder girls?” Jack asked around a big bite of corn on the cob.

“Bite, chew, swallow, then talk.” A grossed out Riley commented. Jack, of course, ignored her.

Bozer sighed and stabbed a shrimp. “It was a dead end. Riley and I checked out the parents thoroughly and there are no spikes of money anywhere. I think we need to concentrate on the three key people we identified yesterday; the cafeteria manager, the bookkeeper, and the vice-principal.”

“Why the vice-principal, and not the secretary or principal?” Riley questioned.

Bozer answered, “From watching the surveillance cameras, the secretary doesn’t even touch the money, it goes straight to the bookkeeper, and if she is out the vice-principal is the one who steps in to do her job. Same with the principal, she never touches the money. She is rarely in the bookkeeper’s office.“

Mac brought up the next question, “So the Secret Service has given all three of them a clean financial record, what do we need to do to potentially catch then in the act?” The team mulled it over while they ate their dinners.

“We can run surveillance on them this weekend. See where they go what they do. There are three of them and four of us, so we can switch out if need be.” Jack suggested. “Things to be on the lookout for would- be excessive shopping, multiple big -money purchases, another house somewhere, gambling, and other suspicious behavior.”

“Sounds good, I’m going to call the bookkeeper,” Riley said.

“I want the vice-principle, that’s something hinky about her.” Jack volunteered.

“I guess that leaves the cafeteria manager to me,” Mac stated. “Boze can be our swing. If that’s all I’m going to do some reading then hit the hay.” Jack noticed that Mac had hardly eaten anything, and that concerned him a little, but he didn’t want to be the helicopter parent that Mac accused him of being sometimes, so he said nothing. Once they had their plan for Saturday and Sunday ironed out Riley and Jack cleaned up, and they all got ready for bed.


	10. That sinking feeling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Halfway there y'all!!! I can't believe it! I've been working on this beast of a story for a little over a year now! Thanks to all who have taken the time to read and been thoughtful enough to leave a review, it is much appreciated! Thanks to booksfallquietly for looking this over, and as always I do not own MacGyver.

It was Friday, which was camo day. Mac donned a pair of camo pants, with a black polo shirt, and topped the outfit with a pair of boots he had found that reminded him of his old Army ones, that were probably in the back of his closet now that he thought about it. He was hoping that the feeling of familiar clothes would help him feel better, but he just felt so draggy this morning. He came out of the bedroom to the waffles Bozer had made for breakfast, but just the mere thought of eating anything turned his stomach. So he just grabbed a yogurt drink instead and hoped that would settle his stomach. The drive to school was uneventful, and he managed to drink all the yogurt drink so that was a plus.

After greeting Casi, and picking up the ten children waiting for him in the gym he returned to the room to sort the folders and make sure the kids didn’t kill themselves. Benny had gotten to where he only wanted to stay on his lap a couple of minutes before he was ready to go play with the other kids; which left Mac more time to sort through the folders to see if the parents sent anything. Opening one folder he saw a handwritten note. ‘Casi, who’s the hottie that’s filling in for Jessie? Think I could get his number?” With a shake of his head he put the note on Casi’s side of the desk for her to deal with; he wasn’t in the mood this morning. His favorite was a note from Chris’s mom asking for them to excuse him from school the day before because they had to pick up the dog from the vet.

Mac checked his watch wondering where Benny was. He was usually in the class by then, with a rub of his head Mac turned back to the folders. When he got to one of the folders the stench of cigarette smoke coming off it was so strong that it almost made him throw up. He held his breath and set that one in the back of the basket the kids put their folders into, away from him. This also awakened a headache in conjunction with his stomach feeling off. He had the feeling today was not going to be a good day.

The children were as crazy as they had been on Wednesday, maybe it was being able to dress up that was causing this hyperactivity. He made a mental note to see if a study had been done on that.

“Mr. Mac, Mr. Mac.” A little hand kept on petting his leg.

“Yes?” Was his answer

“Luke farted on me!”

Mac didn’t know to laugh or what. He decided the best course of action was, “Luke we don’t pass gas on people.” That seemed to make Chris happy and he went off the play again.

Barely a second had gone by before anther little hand was pulling at him, “Hey teacher, Athena won’t share with me.”

With a sigh, he ordered, “Athena, we need to share.” That appeased the little girl and she ran off.

He was finished with the folders of the kids that were there so far when he noticed that Nick was licking the blocks. “Remember toys do NOT go in our mouths.” He announced in general but was specifically looking at Nick while he made the announcement. Thankfully it seemed to work and the boy quit.

Mrs. Casi walked in with only three more children trailing her into the classroom. “Several parents texted me letting me know that their kids are sick and not coming in today. Did I tell you that Benny was diagnosed with the flu?”

Of course, he was, Mac thought. He had been all up on Mac yesterday before he was sent home due to his having a fever. “No, I didn’t. That makes me want to bathe in hand sanitizer.”

“I know the feeling. I swear the first two years that I worked here at school I was sick all the time. These kids are like germ factories.” Casi said conversationally, not realizing that she had told Mac that he was probably infected with something the kids had given him. Mac told himself, I can make it through the day, I’ll be fine, there’s no reason to freak out, I’m ok.

While he was freaking out, Casi had announced that it was time to clean up, so while the kids did that, he finished the folders. When it can time to pass out their breakfasts the smell was overwhelming to him. He fought to keep from gagging, and started breathing through his mouth. As soon as Casi had the morning report done, he was out of there to deliver the cooler bags back to the cafeteria. His nausea thankfully died down as soon as he was away from the smell of food. On the way back Mac decided to get a bottle of water and hoped that would help him feel better, maybe he was a bit dehydrated rather than getting sick. Coming out of the hallway he almost collided with Jack who was pulling a garbage can.

“Whoa, there Hoss.” Then Jack got a good look at him. “Are you feeling ok? You look kinda pale.” Jack held his palm up like he was going to check Mac for fever, but Mac grabbed it and pushed it down.

“I’m fine, and quit doing that! How would it look to see the new janitor feeling the new Pre-K teacher’s head? They would know something is up.” Mac said angrily.

“Relax, nobody is looking, and if there were, I’d just say that we’ve become friends. Friends check friends for fevers.” Jack said matter of factly.

“Not everybody is a helicopter parent. I’m fine, go back to sweeping or moping or whatever it is your doing.”

Jack arched an eyebrow at him, but held up his hands and walked away silently. _Dang it_, he thought, _I’ve hurt Jack’s feelings. Can’t something go right?_

He made his way back to the classroom where Casi had then sitting on the carpet for the morning lesson. He sat down on the table behind the rug to help keep an eye on the kids. He hadn’t even sat down for a minute before Robyn decided to lay down.

“Sit up.” He commanded, using his newfound ‘do it now’ voice. For the past week, he had been mister nice guy, but today, well there was no more mister nice guy. The little girl reluctantly complied.

Then Chris decided he was just going to crawl off, “Get back here now!” Chris gave him a baleful glare and went back to his spot.

Mac then saw that Luke and Nick were trying to battle with their elbows. Being sick of it he told them to go back to their seats.

Casi realized that she had lost them, and quickly finished up the lesson. “Ok, head on back to your seats and we will do this worksheet, then it will be center time! Mr. Mac will be passing out your papers. Please put your name on it and then wait.” Casi got the projector going with the example. Mac then proceeded to pass out a multitude of crayons, take up half that, and stop Tristen from cutting her hair. Mac was thankful when it was center time but quickly realized he still had to do his small group. With a sigh, he gathered up the stamping activity where they stamped their name on the paper, then wrote it below. The first group he called did good, then it went downhill from there.

Robyn started stamping Ainsley’s paper, then refused to do any work instead she just sat there like a bump on a log. Mac decided to ignore her presence and went on with the sheet.

Nevaeh then could not pick out what letter her name started with or any other letters that might be in her name, and to top it all off in his last group Tristen started crying saying that she wanted to go home to her mama. Mac wanted to say me first! When they were finally finished his head was pounding like a drum. How bad he was feeling must have shown on his face because Casi waved him over.

“Listen, why don’t you take Tristen up to the nurse, she’s not usually like this. And I don’t mean this in a bad way, but maybe also get yourself checked out? You’re not lookin so hot.” Casi suggested.

Mac didn’t feel like arguing, in fact escaping this madhouse that was making his head pound even more, sounded like an excellent idea. He collected Tristen, and they quickly made their way towards the nurse’s office. They had almost reached it when Mac’s stomach gave a sudden lurch, one the Mac knew meant trouble if he didn’t get to a garbage can quickly. Mac saw that one was just a few feet away so he lunged in that direction. But not before everything he had eaten came up and splattered all over the floor and the side of the garbage can.

Tristen tore off down the hall calling for Nurse Debbie to come help. Mac was struggling just to stay upright between nausea and the pounding of his head. He felt horrible, not just physically, but because he puked all over the floor right in front of the trash can, and while he hadn’t had much to eat, it had made a real mess.

He felt a cool hand on the back of his neck and opened the eyes that he hadn’t realized he had closed. Nurse Debbie’s concerned face peered back at him.

“Oh, sweetie! Come here’s and let’s get you laying down with a trashcan.” She guided him with one hand on his elbow and he could hear her calling for a janitor, then she handed him some water to wash his mouth out.

Mac felt a tad bit better when he was lying down in the nurse’s office. He shut his eyes again when he lay down, so he vaguely heard Debbie taking Tristen’s temperature, then calling the Pre-K room to say that both he and Tristen would be going home. Then Nurse Debbie left with Tristen, and then he heard Jack’s voice.

“One of the kids didn’t quite make it I see.” Jack’s voice sounded faintly amused.

“Actually, it was one of the staff members, Mr. Mac who messed up your clean floor.

Mac could hear the strain in Jack’s voice as he asked his next question, “Is he ok?”

“Well, I’ve got him lying down. I’m going to see about calling someone to come pick him up. Maybe his mom can come get him.” If only, Mac thought bitterly. Debbie stepped back into the room with Jack right behind her. “How are you feeling, now sweetie?” She asked quietly.

“About the same,” Mac answered honestly, even though he knew he was probably worrying Jack, he didn’t feel good enough to pretend.

“Is there anyone I can call to come and get you? A mom, dad, grandma? I don’t think you need to be driving while you are so sick.”

Mac started to shake his head and then thought better of it. “I’m here alone, and all my friends are at work right now,” Mac answered quietly, somewhat embarrassed not to have someone to call.

Jack piped up, “I’ll tell you what, I’ll drive Mac here home in his vehicle, and Ricky can follow me, and pick me up?” It was a statement phrased as a question. Mac would be glad to have Jack drive him back to the house.

Debbie said, “That’s a great idea, I’ll go and make sure it’s ok with Mrs. Byrne, and call Ricky.” Then she swept out the door into the lounge.

“Hey Bud, I told you that you didn’t look good.” Jack laid his cool hand on Mac’s forehead, where it felt amazing against his warm skin. Mac cracked an eye open to look at his old friend.

“I’m sorry I upset you earlier. I guess you were right to be all helicopterly this time.” Mac murmured. His stomach lurched again and he was heaving into the trashcan.

Jack sighed, “Aw Mac, apologize later when I can really enjoy it, and not when I’m worried to death about you, ok? Now, I’m going to call Bozer and have him meet you at the house after I leave. I don’t want you staying by yourself.”

After laying back on the bench and wiping his face Mac sigh, “I don’t need Bozer. I’m planning on just getting into bed and going to sleep to helpfully sleep this off. He needs to be here as y’all’s backup.” He could tell that Jack was weakening. “I promise to keep my earpiece in place and on, so you can reach me quickly.” He gave Jack his best pleading look.

“All right, but you will let us know if you need us,” Jack stated, giving no room for arguments. Mac was saved from further discussion by the return of Nurse Debbie.

“Mrs. Byrne okayed it, and Ricky will be here in a minute so y’all get him home,” Debbie stated. Addressing Mac she asked, “Do you think you can walk or will you need a wheelchair?” If this didn’t end soon, he was going to die of embarrassment.

“I can walk, not a problem.” Mac had barely gotten the words out of his mouth when Jack jumped in.

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t collapse.” Jack volunteered. “He told me that he had parked upfront, so the Jeep is pretty close.” Jack had just helped Mac to a standing position when Ricky arrived. So they got on their way, and soon enough Mac was buckled into his passenger seat while Jack drove them back to the house.

“Ok Mac, tell me exactly what’s wrong with you. One fib and you will go straight to a doctor of Matty’s choosing.” Jack demanded.

Mac hated being forced into a corner and made to announce his weakness, but his stomach cramped again and he thought he might puke again, but the nausea passed. “My head is pounding, my stomach keeps on cramping, and I feel like to steal one of your phrases, ‘death eating a cracker’. I also might have a fever, I keep feeling hot then cold. Happy?” Mac then returned his head to the cool window.

“Exceedingly.” Came the curt reply. “Once we get you in bed, I’m pouring you some Gatorade or Sprite and…” Jack was cut off.

“Orange juice has much more nutrients to fight off sickness. In fact…” It was Mac’s turn to be cut off.

“You’re getting either Gatorade or Sprite, end of story. The OJ is too acidic and could irritate your stomach even worse, and trust me throwing up OJ sucks major balls. Like major ones!” Jack made a large motion with his hands but quickly put them back on the steering wheel.

“Fine.” Mac groused, hoping that Jack would just leave him alone. He hated it when Jack decided to be a helicopter parent. He liked to be sick all by his lonesome, thank you very much. Thankfully they quickly arrived at the house, and Jack hurried over to help Mac out of the Jeep. Which turned out to be a good thing since his legs decided they didn’t want to hold his weight at that second. Jack was there to catch him and not let him make a fool out of himself.

With his arm over Jack’s shoulders and Jack’s arm around him they quickly got Mac to his and Bozer’s room; where Mac gladly laid down on the bed, clothes and all. Jack untied the boots, got him a trashcan, and left a bottle of Gatorade on the nightstand. Mac felt Jack shake his shoulder, and cracked his eyes a bit.

“If you need me for ANY reason call me! If you start feeling worse, you better call one of the team, do you understand?”

Mac managed a, “Yeah.”

Jack squatted down so he could look Mac straight in the face, “Angus, I’m serious if you feel worse let me know.”

With a sigh, “I’ll be fine Jack. Thanks, and I will.” With that, he pulled the covers over himself and went promptly to sleep.

Mac woke up, not realizing what had woke him up from his deep sleep. Then he felt it that nauseous stomach cramp, then he was puking again, this time thankfully IN the garbage can that Jack had thoughtfully left beside the bed. By this time he had nothing left but stomach bile, but yet again he heaved, but this time producing nothing, which was worse in a weird way. Panting he laid his head back on the pillow and debated the chances of being able to get to the bathroom to wash his mouth out and get a cold compress, but the exhaustion won out. So he took a sip of the Gatorade and slipped back into a healing slumber utterly exhausted. He awoke hours later confused and hot, he stripped off his shirt and debated the pants, but didn’t think he had the energy to accomplish that task. He instead opted to toe -off his socks. With that accomplished, he got another drink and fell back asleep.

The next time he woke was to a hand feeling his head. He opened his eyes expecting to find Jack but got Bozer instead.

“How are you feeling? Don’t say fine! I know better than that! Jack just about gave me a heart attack when he announced he was taking you here.” Bozer would have babbled on for a while, but Mac decided to stop his friend.

“I think I’m feeling a little bit better. I’m not awake enough to know.” Mac stifled a yawn and tried to stretch out, and realized that he was still in his camo pants. “Hey, Boze would you mind handing me my sleeping pants?”

“Yeah, sure, no problem roomie!” Bozer grabbed them from the drawer and handed it to his friend who was trying to sit up. The room did a slow spin but quickly settled into its rightful place, he noted that the nausea was almost fully abated.. He unfastened his pants and was trying to figure out how to get them off when Bozer appeared in front of him with his arm out. Mac grabbed his arms and slowly stood up allowing the pants to fall. Mac then sat back down and Bozer pulled them off the rest of the way, then he helped his best friend into the sleep pants. It wasn’t even the first time they had done this dance, but it was usually because Mac had been injured in some way, not because of sickness. Well, there was the one time that they were kids and Mac had messed up his hand so either his Grandpa or Bozer had to help him get dressed every morning.

After Mac was back in the bed, Bozer asked, “Do you want anything to eat?” The thought of food turned Mac’s stomach, so he shook his head, which made him realize that his headache had mostly abated. He yawned again and asked Bozer.

“What time it is?”

“It’s a little before 6,” Bozer answered.

Mac was surprised; he didn’t realize it had been that long since Jack had brought him to the house. “Dang, I’ve been sleeping since like 9:30 and I’m still tired. Being sick sucks.” He yawned again and rubbed his eyes.

Bozer chuckled, “If being sick didn’t suck people wouldn’t hate it as much. I think the fever might have broke, you go back to sleep, and somebody will be back in later, ok?” Mac nodded his understanding and was already drifting off.

Mac could tell that several more hours had passed when he woke up again, he could hear the murmur of voices from the living room. Glancing at his watch he saw that it was a little after nine, he figured they were probably having Friday night game night just like back at home. He had to go to the bathroom and was trying to decide if he would need help or not. Taking another drink of the Gatorade he decided to try standing, and if that went well then walking to the door, and then the bathroom. Taking a fortifying breath he pushed himself to an upright position and swung his feet to the floor. He only felt vaguely nauseous, and a tiny bit dizzy; a vast improvement over last time. He braced himself and pushed up to standing, the world did a little swirl but soon straightened and when he looked up it was into the eyes of one Jack Dalton.

“What do you think you are doing?” He questioned with a concerned look on his face.

“I needed to use the bathroom if you must know,” Mac swore he wasn’t trying to be a smartass, it just came naturally to him.

Jack arched his eyebrow, “I meant out of bed. You could hurt something if you fell.”

Mac sighed, “I’m sick, not dying of osteoporosis. If I felt dizzy or too weak to make it I was intending to call for one you guys help.”

“I don’t know what osteophotosynthesis is, but you could have cracked that big brain of yours, and where would we be then? Huh? You ever think of that?”

“Osteoporosis is when the bones lose density which causes them to become weak, and easy to break. It’s common among old people.” Mac sighed; he was too tired to be dealing with an overprotective Jack. “Why don’t you shadow me to the bathroom, so you’re right there if I need you. “ Mac reasoned.

“Fine.” Jack huffed, obviously still upset at what he perceived as Mac’s recklessness. Jack followed him down the hallway and stood guard outside the door while Mac used the faculties, and finally got to brush his teeth. When he can out he was feeling much better. Leaving the bathroom he passed the door to his room deciding to join his friends in the living room. Jack was a constant presence at his back. Riley and Bozer both greeted him, and Riley got up so that he could sit in the recliner.

“Feeling better?” Riley asked looking very concerned.

“Not a 100% yet, but much better. We still surveying tomorrow?” he asked. Jack come back into the living room with a glass of orange juice and handed it to Mac before sitting down with Bozer.

“Riley, Bozer, and I are on stakeout duty tomorrow. You are resting.” Jack stated.

“I’ll be fine in the morning.” Mac protested.

Bozer intercepted the argument that was brewing, “How about you and I switch Mac? He can run the van to be our backup if needed. That way everybody wins. You’re still on the mission, but at where you hopefully won’t have to be out and about.”

Mac thought a minute and nodded, Bozer’s plan made a lot of sense. Jack also nodded his consent.

“So what game are we playing tonight? All he saw on the coffee table was a stack of playing cards.

“We’ve been playing different games, and it’s my turn to pick,” Riley announced. She threw a smirk Jack’s way and announced, “The game is Crazy 8’s.”

Jack groaned, “Come on Riles you know I hate that game. I always get all the cards and loose. Can’t we please play war?”

Everybody laughed. “Well, maybe this time you will get lucky. Just remember if you win then you get to pick the next game that we play.” Riley grinned and started dealing the cards when she got to Mac she hesitated, “You in?”

Mac nodded, he was finally feeling better and was quite good at crazy eights.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I do have a couple of other stories almost done, but again I need a beta. So if you have awesome grammar, are good friends with punctuation, like to give feedback, and love to read Word documents then holler at me! The pay sucks, but I'm a great friend and not opposed to paying in cookies, :)


	11. It's time to be a spy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge thanks to everybody who responded to my plea for a beta reader! I have some of the best readers! Also thanks to all who took the time to read and/or review. Each review is precious to me! Thanks to booksfallquietly for looking this over and as always I don't own MacGyver.

The next morning when Mac woke up he felt a million times better. He still had a bit of a headache, and his stomach was still a little off, but it was a vast improvement over the day before. He grabbed his toiletry bag and a change of clothes and headed to the bathroom this time without an escort. Exiting the bathroom he felt like a new person. He hadn’t lasted long at game night, the night before, but he was pretty sure his friends had expected that. After stashing his bag back in the room he headed to the living room. Jack was tying up his shoes while Bozer was in the kitchen pouring some coffee, Mac assumed that meant Riley was still in her room.

Jack looked up when Mac came into the room. “Hey Bud, how you feelin this mornin?”

Mac arched an eyebrow at Jack’s more pronounced Southern drawl, “A lot better, I hate to admit it, but it is probably a good idea for me to stay as backup.”

Bozer walked into the room with a coffee for him and a glass of orange juice for Mac. “I figured you’d want the OJ instead of coffee, and of course it’s a great idea.” When Mac took the orange juice from him, Bozer’s hand went straight to Mac’s forehead.

“Why is your hand on my forehead?” Mac asked disdainfully as he removed the offending appendage from his forehead.

“You just admitted that Jack made a good decision, so I’m checking to see if the fever came back, cause you must be sicker than we thought.”

Mac merely rolled his eyes and sipped his juice ignoring Bozer’s antics. “Where’s Riley?” he finally asked.

“Doughnut run. Sena told me about this little shop in town that a Chinese guy runs, it’s said to be the best in town, so we’re gonna see for ourselves.” Jack said.

“I figured you would be the one to choose the stakeout breakfast Jack,” Mac said.

Bozer laughed, “Oh he wanted to be, but Riley overruled him saying that his selection sucked, and she wanted some good food.”

Jack had opened his mouth, probably to defend his doughnut choices, when the door opened admitting Riley with a takeout box and a white bag. Upon seeing Mac she greeted him, “Hey Mac! How are you feeling today?

His reply was the same as the last time. Riley smiled, “Well I wasn’t sure if you would be up to eating, much less a doughnut, so I got you a bacon, egg, and cheese croissant.” She held up the bag indicating that was what was in it. “I got myself one too, it looked so good.”

The doughnuts were quickly distributed as they all ate in the living room. With a mouthful of doughnut, Jack said, “Sena was right, these are delicious!” He frowned, “well at least mine is. How are y’all’s?”

Bozer nodded and held up his selection of a glazed cake.

Riley finished her bit of the croissant, “Mine is good too.” Then they all lapsed back into eating without talking.

Mac was only able to eat a couple of bits before his stomach signaled that it had enough. “Hey, Bozer, what did the bank say about the deposits from the book fair and the events from the parent-teacher night?”

Bozer had a meeting scheduled at the bank to see if any of the deposits from the two events that Lawrence Elementary School had hosted had any of the counterfeit money. After swallowing his bit of chocolate glazed doughnut, “Well it seems that after they got through processing the money that the amount they got from the Parent-Teacher conference night was handled by their PTO, and didn’t have any counterfeit money. The book fair money, on the other hand, was full of counterfeit bills.”

“So who handled the book fair money?” Mac questioned.

“Apparently half of everybody. The volunteers would help count the money, then the librarian or the assistant librarian would put it in the safe, which the whole office had a key to. So either the bookkeeper or the assistant principal would count the money and log it the next day. So that’s like five different hands, and five more had access to it. The two that overlap with our earlier shortlist are the assistant principal, Dawn Reeves and the bookkeeper Angie Sneed.”

Riley filled in. “I cloned both of their devices and the cafeteria managers so we have what they have, and a little bit of an itinerary for today.” Riley then pulled out her phone and scrolled till she found what she was looking for. “Stacey Cotton, the cafeteria manager is meeting some old friends for a girl’s night out at seven but she doesn’t have anything scheduled before that. I’m predicting she’ll either spend it at home or out shopping. Dawn has a spa day planned, she has it in her phone as lasting from one to five nothing else scheduled, and Angie is going to go to basketball games that her grandkids are playing. Judging from the texts the grandkids are excited she’ll be there.”

They all nodded, and Jack reminded everybody to stay on comms on the group channel. “Mac how about you set up in the corner of the grocery store parking lot? It’s pretty centrally located and a parked car wouldn’t raise too many suspicions” Mac nodded. “Ok, let’s get going, we’re burning daylight.”

The group picked up their mess, grabbed what they needed, Jack making sure to get his Willie Nelson CD’s and butt pillow, and they were on the way. Riley checked in first letting everybody know she was parked at a gas station and had a clear line of sight of Angie’s house. Bozer was the second to arrive at his stakeout position; he arrived just as Stacey was pulling out. Mac advised Bozer that he had him on satellite and would keep an eye on them. Jack was the last to arrive at Dawn’s address, where he reported that she had just gotten the morning’s paper in her pink unicorn bathrobe and walked back inside.

“What kind of grown-ass woman has a pink unicorn bathrobe? I’d be embarrassed to even wear it in the house.” Jack commented.

“Probably the kind that has young daughters,” Mac replied.

Riley snorted a laugh, “Oh come on Jack, don’t you remember that monstrosity of a sweater I got you for Christmas that one year that you would wear?”

That set off Mac and Bozer howling with laughter. “Please tell me that you have a picture of that!” Bozer said after he could breathe again.

“Maybe somewhere,” Riley answered non-committal.

“We should be keeping our comms open,” Jack said sourly.

With a smile on his face, Mac settled into the chair located in the back of the surveillance van, He was keeping an eye on Bozer’s progress and Stacey’s car on one monitor. On another monitor was an ariel view of Jack’s location, and Riley’s was on the third. Besides for Bozer headed south, it was boring, maybe even worse than normal stakeouts. Everybody was quiet on comms, so that wasn’t a distraction at all. He looked around the van trying to find something to do but to no avail. He finally found a few paperclips that were in his satchel, and that helped a little. He sighed resisting the urge to start twirling in his seat,’ _I guess this is why I am a field operative, and not in management‘ _he thought.

He was contemplating breaking something just so he could fix it, when Riley spoke, “Angie appears to be leaving. I’m betting she’s headed to the school for the games.” Sure enough a few minutes later she pulled into the parking lot of the school gym which was quickly filling with cars. “I’m going to go in and watch the games, that way I can keep a closer eye on her.”

Jack replied, “If anyone asks just say one of the kids incited you. We’ve been there a week and at least four kids have asked me to come to watch them play. That or you were reminiscing about the days you used to play b-ball.”

Bozer jumped in, “Wait! Riley used to play basketball?”

Riley groaned, “Yes, I used to play basketball. Didn’t you or Mac ever play sports?”

Mac snorted a laugh, “Even though I can kick Jack’s butt now, let’s just say I was a bit uncoordinated as a kid and leave it at that all right.”

Jack jumped in, “Excuse me? You are still an as uncoordinated as a newborn colt, I just let you win every once in a while.”

Bozer chimed in, “I wasn’t much for organized sports, had to stick with my man Mac.”

Riley interjected, “Ok guys, I’m headed in and would appreciate not having all this chatter in my ear.” Everybody got silent again. Soon they could hear faint conversation from Riley’s comm.

Jack finally broke the silence, “Dawn is outside this time without the bathrobe, it looks like she is playing with her kids. The husband just left, she does NOT look happy.”

Mac pulled up the file they had on Dawn Reeves, “Yea, it says in her file that he and her husband have been to marriage counseling.”

Jack snorted, “They need to continue going.”

Bozer was the next to speak, “Stacey is slowing down, and putting on her blinker at some store called.” He paused a second then said, “Ulta? Think I should go in?”

Neither Mac nor Jack knew the answer, they heard over the com, “I’ve got to get this phone call” then Riley’s voice was a little louder, “Oh yeah, defiantly go in!” They could hear her chuckling.

“Why?” Bozer asked all suspiciously.

Riley was still chuckling, “It’s a makeup store.”

Mac and Jack both started laughing too. “I don’t know about this,” Bozer said trying to back out.

“Listen if any of the salespeople ask if you need help, just tell them you’re shopping for your girlfriend. Heck, text Leanna, and see if she needs anything. That way you’re both doing your job, and earning boyfriend points, win- win!” Riley explained.

“Yeah, that sounds good. Ok, I’m going in!” then Bozer went silent. With both Bozer and Riley occupied with close surveillance that left only Jack and Mac with nothing to do but wait, and wish that Bozer had a camera on him so that they could see how he was progressing with his foray into a makeup store was going. About an hour later Bozer comes back over comms. “Do you know how expensive this makeup stuff is? That was ridiculous! Leanna better be thanking me! I spend a lot less on the paint I use for my masks.”

Riley sent out a text on the group chat, “Yes, I do know how expensive that stuff is!

Bozer checked in again, “She’s headed into a restaurant. Which reminds me, I’m hungry.”

“Stakeout food is always important, young padawan.” Then Jack proceeded to make the chip he was eating crunch very loudly. “But you might want to go in there; we need to know if she’s meeting with someone.”

“Jack’s right Boze.” Mac agreed.

“The best news I’ve heard all day. Think Matty would mind if I put this on the expense account? I mean it is a working lunch and all.”

Mac sighed and went back to the soduko puzzle book he had found under the driver’s seat. His energy was flagging, and he knew the day was far from over, so he had had to find something to keep him occupied.

“The husband just returned.” Updated Jack. “She should be leaving for her spa treatment pretty soon.” A few minutes later he was back with another update. “She’s on the move. You’ve got eyes on us, Mac?”

“I’ve got you covered,” Mac replied as he set down the book and concentrated on the screen.

Mac noticed her car make a quick right turn, then another to the left. “Do you still have a visual?”

“No, She lost me after the right turn,” Jack said.

“Take the next left and you should be behind her. There will only be one car between the two of you.” Mac watched Jack make the necessary maneuver. Then he noticed that she doubled back, and made two quick right turns.”

“Dang it, what is she doing? Think she made me? Jack asked. Mac knew that Jack was a pro at tailing, and doubted that she would have made him in such a short amount of time.

“I don’t know if she’s lost or what, but she should be pulling up behind you soon,” Mac said. Then he noticed her pulling another couple of quick maneuvers designed to shake a tail. Well not if they have satellite capability, Mac thought. “Hey Jack, take the next right, go two blocks, and you should be able to pull in behind her as she heads left.” Mac held his breath hoping he was giving Jack the right directions.

Jack responded, “I’m a couple of cars behind her, and this neighborhood looks purely residential. So either the spa is a hidden one, or she ain’t goin to no spa” He went quiet both men concentrating on where the car might be traveling. It then slowed down and turned into a house.

“Ok, she’s just pulled into a house, I’m parking on the street a few houses down,” Jack informed them. Then a few minutes later Jack exclaimed, “Holy Crap!”

“Don’t leave us hanging!” Bozer yelped.

Riley texted, “What just happened???????”

‘Jack, what’s going on?” Mac inquired.

Jack finally responded. “Sorry y’all, I was getting pictures. Dawn Reeves is having an affair with the SRO Officer, Rob Coltrane.”


	12. A day of little rest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas! May you have a peaceful Christmas (or any other holiday that you celebrate right now!) thank you for taking the time to read this! Thanks to Booksfallquietly for looking this over, and as always I don't own MacGyver (or else we would be getting a Christmas special!

After everybody returned from their various assignments Mac couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer, he had no energy whatsoever, so the rest of the team agreed to hold off on the debrief so Mac could be there to take part in it. The next morning after everybody got up and had some breakfast they were ready to go over what they had found the day before. Riley went first from where she was sitting on the floor in the living room.

“So basically Angie is a dedicated grandmother to two young girls. That was all she talked about yesterday, well them and her dogs. She has two, they are very well- loved and behaved. I can tell you everything you would ever want to know about those animals. There were no indications that she has large amounts of money. She hasn’t made any large purchases and lamented several times that she wished she could help financially some charity that one of the granddaughters is raising money for. Truthfully, I think she’s clear.” Riley summed it up pretty neatly.

Bozer gave his report from the other end of Jack’s couch. “While I found out that makeup is expensive, I don’t think Stacey is our girl either. That girl couldn’t figure out how to make the electric thingy on the restaurant table work, so I don’t think she would have the knowhow to make fake money. Plus I saw her hit up one of her friends for some money. So I’m going to rule Stacey out too.

Everybody turned to Jack who was reclined on his end of the couch with a wicked grin on his face. “Oh yeah, Dawn’s defiantly moved on up to the key suspect spot. There is tension between her and the husband. They had a nice little fight on the front yard after she got back from her ‘spa day’” Jack made sure to do the whole quotations with his hands. “So I can see her making some fake money to support her double life right now. She might even be planning on leaving the husband and taking the kids. That would take some money.”

Bozer asked, “So how do we confirm if she is the one we are after?”

Jack sighed, “We’ve got to catch her in the act or in possession of a large enough amount of the bills to be convicted. Right now we have no proof that she’s anything but a lady in a troubled marriage who is having an affair with a co-worker.”

“I say we search both the house and her office.” Riley suggested.

“Her office wouldn’t be a problem, I can waltz in anytime she’s not there and say I’m cleaning the place.” Jack said. “Her house is going to be a bigger problem, especially with three other people living there.”

Mac snapped his fingers. “Didn’t you say that her church was having some sort of event today?”

Jack’s eyes lit up, and he jumped off the couch almost crashing into Mac in the recliner. “I saved that flyer she gave out.” He hunted around the table for a second before holding up a slip of paper. “They are having a Harvest festival today from 2 to 6 for all to come and enjoy. Blah blah blah. So how about Riley you and Bozer, go to the Harvest festival. If anyone asks who Bozer is, just say he’s your boyfriend. And boy wonder and I’ll break into the house and search it? Sound good?”

Jack could see Mac nodding his approval of the hastily assembled plan, so he turned to look at Riley and Bozer.

“Sounds good, but why do I have to keep playing boyfriend with him?” Riley pointed at Bozer. “This will be the third time we’ve had to pretend to be a couple.”

“Hey! You’re lucky to have me. Now, go fetch me a refill on my drink woman.” Bozer said with a smile.

“Go choke on it.” Riley replied, rolling her eyes.

“You see how she treats me? A girl should treat her man better than that!” This time Riley nailed him in the head with Jack’s shoe that had been lying beside her.

“Owwww, you wounded me!” Bozer exclaimed pretending like it hit him much harder than it really did.

“Ok, so it’s about 9 local time, so I say we update Matty on what’s going then get ready for the break- in,” Mac suggested.

A few minutes Riley had her laptop open and they were calling Matty. She answered quickly, “Have you guys finally ID the culprit behind the counterfeit money?”

“Well…” Jack drew out.

“Well spit it out, Dalton. You have been there for over a week now, and bubkis! I expect more from my top team!” Matty was in fine form this morning. “I have ops that I could use you on, but don’t want to upset the Secret Service.”

“But we are making progress,” Mac added.

“How are you feeling Blondie?” Matty looked genuinely concerned about him. “Bozer told me you had gotten pretty sick the other day.” Jack smiled knowing that Mac could bring out the protective side of a grizzly bear.

Mac smiled ruefully. “A lot better now, thanks for asking. We have identified a prime suspect, the vice principal Dawn Reeves. Later today Jack and I are going to search her house while she is at a fall festival at her church.”

A smile graced Matty’s face, “That is much better news. Jack why didn’t you lead with that?” Jack opened his mouth to reply, but Matty cut him off. “Never mind let me know what you find out.” With that, the video feed cut off.

“Well, that went over well,” Bozer stated sarcastically.

“It could have gone worse.” Rationalized Riley. “So how’s this going to go down? Bozer and I keep an eye on her and the family at the festival and detain them if they leave. Then y’all break in and find signs of her counterfeiting money?” Jack and Mac looked at each other, shrugged and nodded. Riley sighed, “Well, it’s about as detailed as any plan that we ever come up with.”

Everybody agreed. Mac looked at his watch, “Hey Jack we probably want to be set up outside their house by about one to make sure all of them leave before we enter the house.” He then shot Jack a quick grin.

“Oh, you think you’re funny! It was one time! One time that I didn’t get an accurate headcount before going in and the team never lets you forget it.” Jack threw his arms up in disgust. “And I don’t even have a bedroom to storm off dramatically to! So the only flaw in that slaw there buddy is, that they’ve probably already left. I’m guessing the church service is at eleven, and if they go to Sunday School it would have been at like ten, so with them only having two hours between service and the event starting, I’m betting the church will have provided food, so people won’t have to go home.”

“So Bozer and I need to go to the festival first and then let you know when we see all the family.” Riley was thinking out loud. The team agreed. “Let’s do this! I for one am ready to take this lady down and go home to sleep in my bed. I don’t know what that thing is made out of, but it does not sleep well.” Riley started unconsciously rubbing her back as she talked.”

“I will have to say this couch is surprisingly comfortable.” He threw a grin at Riley, but I have no space, and a man needs his space. So to quote a great man, ‘Get ‘er dun!’”

They all groaned at that and went to get ready for the day ahead. A few hours later saw Jack and Mac parked down the street from the Reeves house with Bozer and Riley at the festival. Everybody was connected by comms and ready to get this over with.

“Have you seen them yet.” An impatient Jack asked. He was sitting in the driver’s seat drumming his fingers on the steering wheel.

“We just got here, hold your horses,” Riley replied.

Mac asked, “What’s got you all wound up?”

Jack sighed, “I don’t know, man. I’m all anxious like for some reason. I think being all cooped up in the car for the past two days is getting to me. I think I just need to punch someone.” Jack picked up the binoculars up and scanned the house again. “I can hear you rolling your eyes you know.”

Mac laughed, “Got eyes in the back of your head now, old man?”

Jack felt more at ease with a joking Mac at his elbow, he had hated it when his partner had gotten sick. In fact, the more he thought about it, that was probably why he was on edge now.

“We have eyes on Dawn, but don’t see the husband or the kids.” Bozer’s voice came over the comms. “Wait a second; they just joined her at the cakewalk.” A pause, “Even better, I think the family is running that game. You are clear to go in.”

Jack put the binoculars back up to his eyes to scan for nosy neighbors, everything looked good, so they exited the car and headed to the back of the house. Jack kept watch, while Mac picked the lock. After opening the outside door, he then had to deal with the storm door which he made short work of as well. Mac stepped back to allow Jack to go in first and clear the house. After a quick check, he found it was clear.

They were standing in a sunroom that had a fantastic view of the back yard. Jack took a look around then turned to Mac, “So what exactly are we looking for? I just realized that I have no idea what I’m looking for. The most I know about this came from that TV show ‘Leverage’ where they just photocopied the money.”

Mac sighed, and Jack could tell he was exasperated at him. “So we are looking for a lot of one- dollar bills, special ink, or printing plates, it will take up a lot of room. You’ll know it when you see it.”

Jack just nodded, trusting that he would know it when he saw it. They then proceeded into a living room, finding nothing there; they proceeded to the left into the first bedroom which was probably the older daughters. The décor was a shrine to horses, and so messy that Jack almost fell in a tangle of clothes that were strewn all over the hardwood floor.

Mac laughed first, and then said, “You might want to watch out for all the clothes.”

“Thanks, for that.” Jack snarked right back heading towards the half- closed closet.

“You’re welcome!” Mac was unrepentant. They looked in the closet and saw nothing but more clothes, toys, and a book series with a horse on the front. The next room was the bathroom; they checked the closet, which held nothing but toiletry items and towels. Between the bathroom and the next bedroom was a hallway closet. Mac slid the door open, nothing but jackets and boots.

“How is the search coming?” Bozer asked over the comms. “We’ve played the cake walk so frequently that we’ve won three cakes, and a pie. We had to move to a different booth to avoid suspicion. Right now Riley’s bobbing for apples. Don’t worry, I’ve got pictures!”

There was a muffled mumbling, that Jack assumed was Riley threatening Bozer. Jack laughed, “We’ve only cleared a few rooms. We’ll check back in later. Let us know if you lose sight of any of the family.”

With the hall closet clear, they moved down to the next bedroom. This had to be the younger daughters. It looked like Barbie’s dream house threw up in there, but unlike the older daughter’s room, this one was as straight as a pin. The room was small, but there were two closets. The first one held clothes, mostly pink clothes.

“Who can wear this much pink?” Jack wondered. “I remember when Riley was young, I bought her this adorable pink dress. She threw it away.” As Jack was relaying this he was looking thought the clothes.

“Excuse me, that thing was pink froth, I don’t even think the girliest girl would have worn that atrocity, plus I told you repeatedly that I hated pink.” Riley rebutted over the comms.

“Tomato, ta ma to,” Jack muttered as they moved on to the next closet; which held all the Barbies. “How many Barbies does a girl need?” Jack pondered.

“Apparently about 25,” Mac said as he looked over the closet, checking for any hidden items.

“Of course you counted them,” Jack muttered. They then left the room and found another hall closet. “I swear this house has more closets than my whole apartment building.”

Mac arched an eye, “Your apartment building only has two closets? Because it’s normal for bedrooms to have closets, most people like to store their clothes in them, in fact, it became common in the…”

“I thought we were searching closets, not giving lectures about when closets became standard, professor.” Jack interrupted as he slid one end of the closet open. Mostly outdoor wear, a couple of sports equipment, but no counterfeiting equipment. The next room they entered looked to be a playroom. It held a huge dollhouse, and several stuffed horses, with various types of toys, both put neatly put up and strew around the room. An X-box was also hooked up to the TV.

Jack watched Mac look all the toys over, he had that look in his eyes, “Hey Riley. About how much is a huge Barbie dreamhouse?” Jack rolled his eyes, of course, Mac knew exactly which type of dollhouse it was.

“How am I supposed to know, just a sec let me Google it.” Mac continued looking around the comfortable room while waiting for Riley to get the information. She let out a low whistle, “They look to be around two hundred dollars.”

Mac nodded like it was confirming a thought he had. “Do you remember what the husband does for a living?”

Bozer answered this time, “I think he is also a teacher at another school. Why you have something?”

“The toys the girls have are all high end. American Girl, Barbie, and the X-box they have is the latest version. If the parents are both teacher’s then they shouldn’t be able to afford all this without being deep in debt, and I’m pretty sure I saw an RV parked around back.”

Jack added, “They also have a boat.”

Mac arched his eye at him. Jack answered, “There’s a picture of it when we came in” He shrugged thinking it was obvious to him.

“Riley, do you remember if they were significantly in debit?” Mac asked

“No, from what I remember their bank accounts looked normal for a middle- class family. It looks like the dad is about to take the kids somewhere. I’m not sure if it’s to look around or to leave.” Riley said. “I’m going to shadow the dad, while Bozer keeps an eye on Dawn. I’ll let you know if they head towards the vehicles.”

“Ok, we’ll try to hurry up on this end,” Mac said as he led the way out of the playroom and into the kitchen slash dining room. There was a large family table on one end of the room, a small pantry and cabinets on both sides of the room. Jack took the left side, and Mac the right. Both turned up nothing. They then turned into an entryway, with another closet.

“See more closets, I tell you this is weird.” Jack mused.

“You’re weird,” Mac muttered in reply as he started searching one closet while Jack tackled the other one. One closet held the cleaning items for the house, a high- end vacuum, and one of those Roombas. Jack could almost see Mac’s eyes light up at the robotic vacuum,

“Bad Mac, no touch!” Jack joked, and laughed at the look and finger the Mac threw his way. They walked into the master suite with an ensuite. A quick canvas of the bathroom turned up nothing. The bedroom was very tastefully decorated, and also neat as a pin. Someone in this house was OCD, probably Dawn. The search of the closet proved just as fruitless.

“You guys might want to hurry up. It looks like the youngest girls are getting tired, I’m betting they are about to leave soon.” Riley informed them.

“Yeah, and if the argument they are having right now is an indication they will be going straight home” Bozer added.

“All we lack is the basement,” Jack informed his friends.

Mac and Jack then hustled down to the spacious basement, it spaned the whole of the house. The basement was the dumping ground of the house. There was an extra refrigerator and a deep freezer. By mutual agreement they divided it the same as they did the kitchen, Jack took the left and Mac the right. Jack found all sorts of odds and ends. Including a dress form, but nothing that looked like it was used to manufacture money. He had just about reached the end of his section when he heard Mac call for him.

Mac was squatted in a corner where there were a couple of one- dollar bills lying on the floor. “I bet this is where they kept the money and bleached it.”

Jack looked at him in puzzlement.

“Close your eyes and take a deep breath,” Mac instructed. Jack did as he was told. He smelled, must, that unique basement smell, and bleach. His eyes flew open.

“Bleach!”

“Yep, but there is no indication of the printing operation having ever been here.” Mac sighed and stood up. “So she is defiantly involved, but she is either printing the money elsewhere or has partners who are doing it for them.”

“You guys need to be getting out. They are headed for their car. We’ll tail her to make sure they are going home.” Riley informed them.

They both headed back up the stairs, but instead of heading out to the sunroom Jack went back to the master bedroom. “Where are you going? Mac asked. Indicating they needed to be making their getaway.

Jack held up a finger, “Just a second I just thought of something I need to check real quick.” He dashed into the bathroom and opened the mirror covering the drug cabinet behind it. Looking over the items inside he found what he was looking for, and handed it to Mac. Can you check to see if that’s what it says on the label?”

Mac checked the label, it was a generic high blood pressure medicine. “Yeah, I should be able to.”

“Ok, grab one and let’s go.” Jack flashed a grin at Mac as he shook one of the pills loose, put it in his pocket, and they were out the door relocking the house behind them. They hadn’t been back in their car for five minutes before the Reeves pulled into the driveway. Jack saw Riley and Bozer drive by. They waited a few more minutes to make sure their presence hadn’t been detected before they pulled away and headed back to the house.

As they pulled out, Jack turned to Mac who was sitting in the passenger’s seat, “Guess we’re not going home tomorrow.” He said with a sigh.


	13. The song remainds the same

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everybody reading had a good Christmas (or whatever holiday that you may celebrate!) This is the last post of 2019! Thanks for all the wonderful comments and the kudos in 2019, ya'll really don't know how much they really mean to me! I'll see you again in 2020! Hope everybody has a happy and safe New Year's! Thanks to booksfallquietly for looking this over, and as always I don't own MacGyver!

School the next day was a major disappointment to Mac and the rest of the Phoenix team. They knew Mrs. Reeves was a part of what was going on but didn’t know if she had accomplices, who they might be or anything. He hated getting one little piece of the puzzle, with nowhere to place it. Upon getting back from the Reeves house he had tested the pill. It wasn’t a blood pressure drug, but rather oxy or some variation. There was the rumor that a cartel might be involved, and this was something that might indicate their involvement. Instead of answers they now had even more questions, it was enough to make his head hurt. Plus it was dress like a tourist day, which he had no clue how to do. The vast majority of the places he had visited had been for work, not to sightsee. Oh well, he would make up for it on career day the next day, that he was looking forward to.

He was sitting back in the Pre-K room with Benny back on his lap watching the kids play with their rug toys. At least Casi had been happy to see him and seemed genuinely pleased that he was feeling better. Once she got back to the classroom with the other children, they let them play for a few minutes Casi filled him on the day ahead, while they sorted folders.

“I am glad you’re feeling better, I know how rough it can be to get sick when you’re not at home. There used to be a teacher here that once got sick while she was at Wal-Mart, felt so awful she laid down on their grimy floor and waited till her husband could come to pick her up.” Casi shook her head. “So today is another busy day at Lawrence Elementary. They are having an assembly to show off the drug dogs this morning. We’ll have to watch them and make sure they don’t run to try to pet the dogs.” Mac grinned at the visual of one of the kids running to pet a drug dog. Casi sighed, “I’m speaking from experience. One of the kids last year took off in the middle of a play to try to play with one of the actors. So we got to watch them closely.” She then growled and showed him a paper. “So I sent these permission slips home Friday for our upcoming field trip in a couple of weeks. Two parents have returned the slip saying their kid can go but didn’t send the money with it! What are they thinking?” She massaged her temples. “Did I tell you I’m not going to be here tomorrow?”

Mac thought for a second, and then shook his head, “I don’t remember if you did.”

“Gotta take the youngest to the dentist, and Ricky is out of days. So Marie will be in here with you tomorrow.” With that Casi stood and grabbed the breakfasts to hand out while she hollered at the kids to start cleaning up.

“You don’t mind working with Marie, right?” Casi asked hesitantly.

Mac shook his head, “I enjoyed working with her, she’s very entertaining.” He laughed.

“That she is, I like to get a sub the kids are familiar with, so we have a couple that we usually get.” By that time they had the breakfasts passed out, and Mac had the juices put up. He was getting the hang of being a Pre-K teacher. Of course, that was when something bad had to happen. Maddie had gotten up, and not watching where she was going she tripped over Dakota’s chair and fell right into Freya’s lap knocking her milk carton flying. In the end, there was milk everywhere, and two little girls were sobbing and soaking wet.

Casi sighed picked up the radio and called for a janitor to come with a mop. Mac gathered the girls, their extra clothes and made the trek to the nurse’s office so they could change since there wasn’t a bathroom in their room. Mac passed Jack headed to the room to clean up the milk mess. He took one look at the still sniffling girls, chuckled, shook his head, “I’m glad it’s you and not me.” And went on his way.

Nurse Debbie was in her office and took over getting the girls cleaned up and changed. While Debbie took care of the girls, Mac took that chance to try to keep an eye on Dawn, but she was not in her office. The team had discussed planting one of the bugs in her office, but Jack thought that if she was checking for a tail, then she would also be checking for listening devices.

Once the girls were changed Mac asked them to wait in the hall for him so he could talk to the Nurse.

“I just want to thank you for Friday.” Mac knew his cheeks were starting to flush. “I really appreciate your help.”

Debbie grinned at him, patting him on the shoulder. “Oh Honey, I’m just glad you are feeling better! You weren’t the first staff member to get sick, and I doubt you will be the last! So don’t worry about it!”

Coming out of the nurse’s office they Mac about ran into Mrs. Reeves, who had been on the phone. Mac had heard her violently whisper, “That it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans! I said don’t call me at work.” before the phone disappeared into her pocket. She then shouldered past Mac angrily marching into the office. Mac couldn’t tell if that was her regular phone or if it was a burner. He needed to talk to Bozer but knew the kids would notice if he suddenly started talking to himself. He was just about to claim a bathroom emergency and get a random teacher to watch them when Riley came walking down the hallway. He waved getting her attention.

“Hi, Ms. Riley!” Then he mouthed that he needed to talk to Bozer, so she would know what was going on. She joined his little group and squatted down to talk to the girls distracting them from what Mac was doing.

Mac touched his ear to activate the comm.. “Hey, Bozer?”

“What’s up, Mac?”

“Pull up the cell phone records on our suspect, and see if she just took a phone call. I just witnessed a heated phone call and the phone she used didn’t look like her regular phone. I suspect she is using a burner.”

“On it, give me a second.” Mac could hear Bozer typing.

“You wouldn’t believe it, Ms. Riley, we just about ran into Mrs. Reeves right outside the office!”

Riley and Bozer both answered at the same time, but Mac tuned Riley out to see what Bozer had to say, “I don’t have any outgoing or incoming calls during that time frame. It must have been a burner.”

“Thanks, Boze.”, then to Riley, “Burner.”

Riley nodded her understanding told the little girls bye, and the two parted company. No sooner had they stepped foot in the classroom than over the intercom Mrs. Byrne announced that it was time to start filling up the gym for the drug dog program. They got the kids lined up, and lead them the short distance to the gym. Once in the gym Pre-k sat on the floor with Mac on one end in the bleachers and Casi on the other end. Mac enjoyed the program. He found it fascinating that a dog could be trained to differentiate the various smells and alert only on specified ones. It reminded him of his friend Maria Ramirez, and her bomb dogs. One of the dogs that were shown was a beautiful German Sheppard that had been highly trained to detect various types of drugs. The other one was a mutt, which would alert to alcohol and marijuana only. He was listening so intently that he almost missed it when Chris started to get up. Mac signaled for him to sit back down, which he did grudgingly. When the officer in charge of the program opened it up for questions, almost all of the Pre-Kers hands went up.

The officer knelt in from of Maddie, who asked, “My Auntie says some dogs are working dogs, and I can’t pet them. Is your doggy a working dog?”

“Your Aunt is correct, most dogs that have a vest on are working dogs, and should not be petted. My dog is a little different, while he does work for me, I also bring him around kids a lot, so can be petted.” Mac thought the officer did an excellent job of answering her question. He picked a few more kids, who’s questions ranged from off the wall, to quite thoughtful. Mrs. Byrne announced that the kids could pet the dogs as they walked past when they left the gym. Since it was their lunchtime Mac took the kids who had brought their lunch to the room to retrieve their lunchboxes while the others went to go wash up.

They hadn’t even back with the other kids for a full minute until Mac felt a kid petting his leg. It was Chris. “What do you need?”

Chris turned away and pointed at another kid, “He farted me!” At first, Mac didn’t hear what the little boy was saying since he was facing away from him. After he had Chris repeat it for the third time he understood and wanted to facepalm. Sighing he told Chris, “Tell him that’s not nice, ok?”

The little blonde boy nodded and ran back to the sinks, where the other kid was washing his hands. Casi stepped over and asked, “Did he just say what I thought he said?”

Mac nodded, “And this wasn’t even the first time!” He shook his head these kids were something else. Thankfully the rest of the day was uneventful, and the kids even took a nap, so Mac was in a good mood until he saw Bozer’s van when he pulled into their driveway. Bozer usually didn’t get back until the same time as Jack. He hurried into the house concerned about his old friend and found him waiting on the couch looking glum.

“Are you Ok? Did something happen?” Mac asked gravely. His eyes searching for any clues as to what was wrong with his best friend.

Bozer looked at him without his usual charisma, which caused Mac’s anxiety to ratchet up another notch. “I prefer to tell the whole team at once, so I don’t have to repeat it three times.”

Mac nodded and had a seat on the armchair to wait for the others. Absentmindedly he pulled out a paperclip and started shaping it to pass the time. Riley and Jack reacted just about the same way that Mac did, and soon all three of them were settled in the living room. Riley on the arm of the couch and Jack sitting beside Bozer, Bozer cleared his throat, “So I was visited by the Police today.”

Mac felt like Riley and Jack mirrored his supervised expression. “Somebody has been paying attention and was concerned that I might be somebody wanting to harm to the kids. Thankfully, it was all cleared up with a call to Matty, but she’s not happy, and the Police aren’t happy that we are operating in their area without letting them know.” Bozer sighed, rubbing his face. Did we at least get anything today?” Mac shook his head, hoping that Riley or Jack would have something to report, but they had come up empty too. Bozer nodded like he had been expecting that answer. “Matty is pressuring us to figure this out. She’s never chewed me out like that before, Jack sure, but not me.” This seemed to lighten the mood.

“Moi?” Jack pointed at himself. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, if there was a gold star for spies, it would be mine.” This caused everybody to crack up, even Bozer got a laugh out of it. “I hate to ask, but it’s an important question, but what’s for supper? My belly’s growling.”

Mac had kept a close eye on his friend, and visibly saw his shake the day off and shift into Chef Bozer. “Well Seńor, it’s fiesta time! Would you care to have the honor of cooking? I think I have everything you want, but we are running low on supplies. If you don’t mind I thought that Mac and I could make a supply run, while you and Riley whip us up a delicious Tex/Mex meal.”

Jack’s grin could have lit up Las Vegas. “Sounds like a deal. I’ll text you if I need anything to finish my culinary masterpiece!”

Mac waited until they were in the Jeep headed to the store before he asked, “Are you sure leaving Jack in charge of fixing the food was such a great idea? The man’s idea of mild is extra spicy.”

Bozer laughed, “I only left him a little of the spices, enough to give it zip, but not enough to burn our mouths off.” Mac’s laughter blended with Bozers. They chatted amicably letting the stress of the day bleed off.

Walking into the store Mac thought to ask Bozer, “So what do we need to get?”

“Everything, man, everything. JK, I got a list, but should we see if we can bankrupt your dad?”

Mac gave a surprised shout of laughter that was something he hadn’t thought of so far. “Probably not, Matty would have our heads on a spike, I’m more afraid of her than I am of Jim. So what do I need to get?”

Bozer thought for a second, “If you could grab the usual stuff that would be a big help. But you might need your own grocery cart.”

Mac nodded his agreement, “But Boze, let’s try not to buy the store out this time, ok?” With than he headed to the opposite end of the store. He heard Bozer’s voice carry over, “No promises!”

He had his head in the refrigerated case trying to figure out which orange juice was the best for the value when he felt something impact his knee. Frowning he looked down to see a small body- hugging his lower leg, it took him a second, but he recognized Benny. “Hey, Benny. How are you?”

Before the little boy had time to answer, a lady in her mid- twenties with dark auburn hair called, “Benny! Please, leave that man alone!” As she rushed towards them.

Benny let go of Mac’s leg, and turned to his mom, “Momma, it’s just Mr. Mac, he’s always glad to see me.” The little boy said this in a well duh tone, which caused both adults to crack up.

Mac turned to Benny’s mom, and extended his hand, “Hi, I’m Mac. I’m the sub in his Pre-K classroom.”

She shook his hand, “I’m Nic. Oh, I know all about Mr. Mac. He comes home every day telling everything that you did that day. While he was out sick he kept telling me that he needed to go back that you would miss him.”

“Uh-huh, you did miss me, didn’t you Mr. Mac?” Benny piped in.

Mac knelt, “Of course, I missed you, but I also had to go homesick.” The little boy wrinkled up his nose. “Yeah, I much rather had been at school with you!’

As Mac stood up, Nic said, “I just want to thank you for being so kind to him. It’s been rough with his father gone, and I’m glad that he enjoys going to school.”

“Are you going to eat all this food?” Benny’s little voice was filled with wonderment. Mac and Nic looked over and Benny was clinging to the side of the cart looking in at all the groceries that were already in there. “That’s more than what’s in our whole house!”

Nic’s eyes got wide, “Bentley! Get off Mr. Mac’s buggy! You don’t want it to squish it do you?”

“Sorry, momma.” But the boy didn’t sound sorry at all. “Can I go with Mr. Mac? I want to show him my favorite snacks, maybe he can buy them since we can’t.”

Nic’s face flushed with what Mac assumed was embarrassment, and she opened her mouth, but Mac cut her off. “I would love to have you accompany me, but let me talk to your mommy for just a second.” Benny nodded and walked over to one of the end caps to examine what was on sale. “Before you say no please listen to what I have to say ok?” Nic nodded her head. “I’d love to have him walk with me, while you go pick out everything you need OR want. I mean everything; don’t even look at the price tag.” Mac could see she was about to start protesting. “When I was his age, I lost my mom. I remember how hard it was on my dad and I...“ Mac’s voice trailed off trying to get himself together. “So let me do this, ok?” Mac could see the tears that had gathered in Nicole’s eyes. She didn’t say anything but nodded her consent. “Thank you.” Then he called to Benny, “Mom said you could accompany me while I finish shopping.” The little boy jumped up and down grabbed Mac’s hand and started dragging him off in the direction of ‘the bestest snacks’

Mac called over his shoulder, “I’ll meet you up at the checkout area.” Mac didn’t have time to say more, because Benny was pulling him so quickly.

Back in the car on the way home, Bozer spoke first, “That was awesome of you to get their groceries for them.” Mac shot him what he hoped was his best, ‘I don’t want to talk about it look’ which didn’t work. “The kid looked like you hung the moon. You are really good with him and the rest of them.” Bozer sounded sincere.

“Thanks, Boze.”

“And it was adorable how you helped them out to the car, and buckled the kid in while I had to finish checking OUR groceries out AND load them by MYSELF!” Bozer groused good- naturedly. He then had to fill Mac in on all the text messages he had received from Jack about the lack of spices and all the other grocery items, he kept on coming up with they needed to get.

Opening the door, a heavenly scent greeted them. Jack was standing at the stove, putting something in a serving dish. He turned to them, “Perfect timing! We are just dishing it up! Haul those groceries in here quickly as so it doesn’t get cold.” He noticed their full hands. “You buy out the store again?”

Mac called back a quick, “Yes” as he was headed out to get another arm full. Riley held the door and helped them bring it in while Jack set the table. The food was as delicious as it smelled, and soon enough they were all complaining that they were going to pop some buttons. Jack was eating the praise right up. Riley volunteered to clean up, and Bozer said he would help. So Mac grabbed his beer bottle and retreated outside to relax for a few minutes. It wasn’t their porch back in LA, but the backyard had a fire pit, and a couple of chairs before the yard turned into woods. Mac grabbed the firewood and soon had a small blaze started. He took a sip and relaxed back into the chair. He hadn’t been out there too long when he heard the door open, and Jack settled in the chair beside him.

Jack broke the silence, “That was a mighty kind thing to do for that kid and his momma.” Jack sounded proud.

“Bozer talks too much.” He then took another sip of his beer.

“You want to talk about it?” Jack offered. Mac cut him a look. Jack threw up his hands, “Or we could just sit here and stare at the fire.” Mac drank to that. They sat in silence, just taking in the warmth of the fire.

“He reminds me of myself at that age.” Mac felt himself say. There was something about Jack that could pull just about anything out of him, whether he wanted him to or not. “I felt bad that they might go without when I could do something about it.” He shrugged, taking another drink.

Jack shook his head, “Well you probably made her year. Let me tell you a story. When I was a kid, a friend of mine’s dad passed away. I was in like fifth or sixth grade and didn’t have a clue how to console someone. I asked mom to take me to visitation, just to let my buddy know I was there for him. Well, I ended up giving him my allowance I got from Granny Dalton that day; I think I was like a couple of dollars or somethin. Anyway, I forget about it and when were in high school, he signs my yearbook thankin’ me, and tellin’ me how much it meant to him. Now, think about how much this will mean to them. Plus, I know for a fact that they will be back on their feet very soon.”

Mac looked over at his friend, “What did you do?”

Jack lifted his beer to his lips, “nuthin’” and took a drink while smiling. Mac shook his head, he didn’t know how lucky he was to have the friends that he did, but he was sure glad he had them.


	14. Career, what career

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops, I meant to post this yesterday, I totally forgot that it was Wednesday, lol. I hope everybody had a happy and safe New Year's and I wish you all the best in 2020! May MacGyver be as awesome and long running as Supernatural, lol! Thanks to booksfallquietly for looking this over, and as always I don't own MacGyver.

Today was Career day, and Mac had to admit he was kind of excited to see what the kids and teachers had come up with. Riley was going as herself, Secret Agent Davis; she had gotten Jill to fake a badge that she could wear proclaiming her a Secret Agent, which she paired with black leggings, black ankle boots, and a black top. Mac had to admit she looked pretty awesome. He asked Jill to send his lab coat with Riley’s badge, so he was dressed as a scientist with his lab coat and clipboard. Jack was going as a soldier, he had borrowed the boots Mac had worn, pared them with his camo pants, and purchased an Army shirt to top the look off. The first time Mac saw him, he almost instinctively saluted; Jack had seen the aborted salute and grinned. Mac knew he was going to be harassed about that later.

Mac was already at school having got the early kids and the bus riders when Marie come in with a black dress, black knee- high combat looking boots, and make-up on, and even her hair was fixed in curls. All the kids kept on looking at her.

“So what are you dressed as?” Mac asked after she had twirled much to the delight of the kids.

She feigned shock, “You mean you don’t recognize me? I’m a movie star! I’m known for my movies, ‘The Substitute’ its sequel “The Substitute Returns’, and the third and final movie, ‘The Substitute: Back to School ‘ they are about a cop going undercover to clean-up dirty schools. I hear it performed well overseas.”

Mac started laughing, “That’s pretty good, I’ll give you that!”

Ainsley came up to Marie, “Ms. Marie, can I have some of your lipstick? It’s so sparkly!”

Mac had to admit the lipstick was indeed sparkly. Marie squatted down, “Sorry, sweetie. I left it at home.”

“Can you bring it tomorrows?”

“I’m not going to be here tomorrow.”

“Oh.” The little girl paused then asked. “Well can you bring it the next time you come?”

She was a persistent one. Marie answered, “We’ll have to see.” Then she addressed all the kids. “Ok, let’s line up with Mr. Mac. “

The kids quickly lined up and followed him back to the classroom. As soon as Benny got there and in his lap, he pulled Mac’s head down. “I’s gots to tell you a secret.” The little boy’s hot breath tickled Mac’s ear, but he ignored it. “I broughted one of the snacks that you gotted me at the store for my lunch!” Mac smiled, he was going to miss this little man when they left. Soon Marie was back with the other kids, and the day started in earnest.

They had just started center time, when Marie looked at her phone for the millionth time, then called out, “Everybody freeze!” The children responded very well and froze. “Everybody who is dressed up for Career day, please come over here, so we can get a picture! Mrs. Casi just reminded me!” All the little firemen, police officers, dancers, nurses, and vets all come to the rug. Mac helped then form two lines, so Marie could get a decent picture. Once she snapped a couple, she released the kids to go back to their centers and she returned to the desk chair beside Mac.

She handed him her phone, “So what do you think?”

Before he had a chance to answer a text message come through. So he handed the phone back, she quickly responded and handed it back to him. After a glance, another message came through. She took the offered phone with a growl. “You would think these grown butt adults had never done this before.” She sent a reply off and tossed it on the desk. “Hopefully they won’t reply.”

Mac was curious, “What’s going on?”

Marie sighed, “Every year for the past couple of years, my church hosts a Community Thanksgiving Dinner. This means the church fixes a Thanksgiving meal for those who might not otherwise get one. Want to take a guess to who is in charge?”

Mac grinned, “The Pope?”

“Good guess! You are 100% correct! The Pope comes to my Baptist church to direct this event. I wish!” She chuckled. “That would be a lot easier on me. For some reason, everybody has decided they need to ask me a million questions about it. It’s not like we’ve had it for the past six years or something.” She groaned and buried her head in her hands.

“Anything I can do to help?” Mac offered. He enjoyed helping out in food kitchens back home, and wouldn’t mind helping out Marie if she needed it.

She pulled her hands down and ran them through her hair. “I don’t know. Maybe? Honestly, I run this by the seat of my pants, with the motto ‘God will provide’ and he usually does.” She paused a second the nodded, “Yeah, I could totally use your help, my friend who usually runs it with me left to go to college.” She was about to say more, but Grayson come over to tattle that Chris wasn’t his best friend anymore. She went to settle that argument, and then Mac had to go because two of the girls were fighting over a baby doll.

When they both finally got back to their seats Marie tried to pick up where she left off. “So how long do you want to volunteer for? ‘Cause I’ll be there most of the day, but we only serve from five to seven.”

Mac thought about it for a minute. Right then they didn’t have any plans for Saturday, and if he spent the day there then maybe Marie or someone else would talk about someone who maybe had more money than usual. Getting his job done, plus getting in some charity work sounded like a winner in his book. “I can be there all day.” A thought occurred to him, “I’ll even pick you up that morning!”

Marie seemed genuinely surprised, “Are you sure? It will be mostly boring. Me trying to cook Big Bertha the turkey, making some more dressing, cleaning, and generally getting set up.”

“Sounds like fun. I’ve always wanted to try dressing, one of my friends is from the South too, and laughs every year when we make the stuffing.” Mac was looking forward to it. Jack would always make fun of the stuffing that Bozer would make telling them they didn’t know what real food was all about, then start eulogizing about his Granny Dalton’s dressin’.

Marie smiled, “You’re amazing,” She picked up a piece of paper and pen to write down her address and phone number. “I’d say come by around 9:30 or so, there are a few things I need to take with me. And here is the address. It’s easy to find, just get on the highway, and right before you get to the hospital we are the first street on the right, first house on the right. Can’t miss it!” She handed him the note. “I also put my phone number in case you get lost, or need a sub!” She looked at her watch. “Shoot, if we don’t hurry, we’ll be late for lunch, again!”

Thankfully they were able to clean up and get the kids to lunch right on time. Mac was in the middle of eating his lunch when his phone buzzed. He pulled it out to see a message from Jack, ‘I need a distraction.”

Mac frowned, ‘For what?’ He typed back.

Jack quickly responded, ‘Want 2 search ass principal office.’ Then ‘Can’t do it after school, doors locked, don’t have key.’

Mac pondered the situation, he couldn’t just make two kids fight, plus it wouldn’t reflect well on him and Marie as teachers, so he needed an alternate plan. He remembered seeing Jack’s cleaning cart near the bathrooms as they came in. Maybe with the chemicals there, he could make enough smoke to start a fire drill. When he relayed his idea to Jack he got back. ‘I’ll just pull it’

And sure enough just a few minutes later the fire alarm sounded. It was horrible trying to get all twenty kids up and in a line going out the door at the same time. Several cartons of milk were knocked over, some kids had food clutched in their hands, and their line looked more like a heard of cats. With every second spent outside Mac silently cursed Jack, and hoped this wasn’t all for naught. When nap time came around Mac was ready for one himself. Jack hadn’t responded to any of the texts he had sent, so either he had nothing, had something, or they had figured out he was the one that pulled the alarm. Even though he doubted it was the last one. All the kids were down with a G rated movie on Netflix playing quietly in the background so those few who weren’t napping to quietly watch. Mac was working on the folders, while Marie was reading a book when the phone rang. Marie quickly got up and threaded her way through the cots to answer it on the third ring, “Pre-K, this is Marie.”

Marie’s face went from pleasant to annoyed pretty fast, “No Kim, I’m not doing it.” Then shaking her head, “Because it’s gross. Make Sena do it, she lives for this.” She laughed at whatever was said. “Fine, whatever. You will owe me so much!” With that, she hung up the phone. Looking up she saw that Mac was looking at her, so she motioned him over. He followed the same path she took trying not to trip over any of the cots. When he got to where Marie was she started talking, “So that was Mrs. Kim in kindergarten, and they have a kid with swamp butt. The kicker is she can’t figure out who and wants me to do a sniff test.”

Mac was trying his hardest not to burst out laughing, but his face must have given him away because Marie shot him a poisonous look, “So she’s sending them down, and you’re helping.” That stopped the laughter. She beamed at him, “Just think you’re helping a child develop better bathroom habits.”

The three boys knocked a second later, and as soon as they stepped in the hallway you could smell the stink. Marie called each one by name to her talked to them for a second then she sent them to Mac. They both agreed it was the dark- headed little boy. So she sent them back to their classroom and called Kim. “Yeah, it’s me.” “We are pretty sure it’s Michael.” “Of course I did.” “You owe us!” Marie hung up the phone,” I swear you can’t make this stuff up!” With that, they headed back to the desk to finish folders, and wait for the end of the day.

They had almost reached the desk when the phone rang again. Marie motioned for Mac to go ahead and sit while she turned around to answer the phone. When it didn’t look to be important Mac got back to finishing the folders “Hey.” Mac looked back up, “Office, I’ll be right back.” Mac nodded, and Marie slipped out of the room. He finally finished the folders, and was in the middle of sending another text to Jack, this one threatening, when he heard a knock. He quickly made his way to the door to let Marie in. In her hands, she held a box of cupcakes, and a balloon bouquet proclaiming Happy Birthday.

“So it’s Maddie’s birthday tomorrow, and she won’t be here. So they sent cupcakes for a snack.” Marie handed Mac the cupcake box and went to set the bouquet on the table where Maddie would sit for snack. He looked at the cupcakes, each had a ring with either a spider web or Spiderman’s face on it, and the cupcakes were iced in either red or blue. Guess she likes Spiderman he thought. Mac could hear some of the kids starting to whisper, and saw a few sit up.

“Nap time’s not over yet. Lay back down.” The words came out of Mac’s mouth even before he thought about it. He was finally getting a hang of this teaching thing, after all. Mac threaded his way back through the cots, and sat the cupcakes on the desk, while he took the chair. Mac looked down at his watch they only had about ten more minutes of nap. He looked over at Marie, who had picked up her book again. “So how does this work?” He gestured at the cupcakes.”

Marie marked her place and set the book down. “Well generally we give them a cupcake and they eat it.” She laughed at his expression. “Since it is a mix of both chocolate and vanilla cupcakes I wait until the kid is in their seat to ask them which flavor they like best, and we will sing Happy Birthday when the birthday girl gets up. Don’t let them dictate exactly which one they want, you’ll be here all day, well except for the birthday girl. Let Maddie pick the exact one. Everybody else gets what they get and doesn’t throw a fit.” She looked down at her watch and sighed, in a whining tone she announced, “I guess it’s time to get them up. If you want to get the lights, I’ll start passing out the juices.”

Mac did as asked and soon the kids were stuffing their blankets under the sheet on the cot and scrambling for their seats eager for their cupcakes. Mac took the box of cupcakes after he got it open to Maddie, “So which cupcake do you want?”

She blinked up at him owlishly, “I’m gonna be five tomorrow!” She extended her hand with all her fingers extended.

Mac chuckled, “Well Happy Birthday, which cupcake do you want?”

“I wanted a vanilla cupacake wif red icing and a Spiderman face!”

He handed her the requested cupcake and after a mumbled ‘thank you’ she started happily licking the frosting off. He passed out a few more cupcakes before getting to Athena, “Do you want chocolate or vanilla?”

“I want blue.”

“Blue isn’t a flavor, do you want chocolate or vanilla?”

“Blue!”

Mac fought the urge to roll his eyes. “I’m not asking what color you want. Do you want a chocolate or vanilla cupcake?”

The little girl frowned at him, “Chocolate.”

He handed her the cupcake, and noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Turning to better see, he discovered Chris standing beside the desk with his pants around his ankles and his hand down the back of his little Batman underwear.

Mac frantically looked around the classroom for Marie, but he didn’t see her. In his calmest teacher’s voice, Mac asked, “Chris please pull your pants up and take your hand out from your underwear.”

Little vacant eyes turned towards him, “But I can feel poops coming out of my butt!”

Mac’s eyes widened, “Go to the bathroom! Hurry!” Chris turned around with his pants still around his ankles and his hand still down the back of his underwear. “Pull up pants first please!”

Mac noted the twinge of desperation to his voice as the little boy toddled out of the classroom towards the bathrooms. He hurriedly passed out the rest of the cupcakes, wanting to go check on Chris when Marie walked back into the room with Chris. “Did he …” Mac started to say.

Marie interrupted. “I got him as he was coming out of the classroom, and we went to visit mom real quick, He’s all good now.” She raised her eyebrows and rolled her eyes. “Go sit down and enjoy your cupcake sweetie!” She waited until he was in his seat, and whispered, “You seriously can’t make this crap up.”

Mac trudged out of the school after the last bus had finally pulled out. He was done, or as Jack would say, ‘Stick a fork in me, I’m done’. He made it to his Jeep and was about to climb in when he heard the distinctive sound of a motor not turning over. The sound repeated its self, but this time was accompanied by a lady swearing a blue streak. He sighed, it had been a long day, but he could probably fix what was wrong with the truck that was making the awful noise. As he approached, he could hear her chanting, “Please start, please start, please start.” After trying again she appeared to give up, and just laid her head on the steering wheel.

“Can I help?” He asked hesitantly.

Her blonde head popped up, obviously not realizing someone was standing nearby. She pushed the half- opened door all the way open and hopped out. “Mac right? Didn’t Marie introduce you?”

At his nod, she laughed, “I’ve heard good things about your fixin abilities. I’m Mel, I substitute here, but you already knew that.” She laughed and held out her hand, they quickly shook. “Well, let’s see what you can do with this hunk of junk. I’ve been telling my husband that it’s an accident looking for a place to happen. But he won’t listen to me.”

While Mel was talking Mac popped the hood and was looking around to see what the issue could be. “Would you mind trying to crank her up for me?”

Mel got back in and turned the key, while Mac studied the engine. He was pretty sure it was the spark plug, but without the right tools, it was impossible to check. Luckily he wasn’t one to give up. Looking around he found a long slim pipe that, with just a bit of tweaking should work just fine. He noticed Mel standing beside him watching him work. After pulling the valve covers he inserted his pipe into the hole, and carefully twisted the spark plug out. This one looked ok. So he carefully replaced it and tried the next one. Bingo! He could see where the metal connection part was broken off. He remembered seeing a small piece of wire that would do in a pinch. He quickly got it, did a little spot welding using a magnifying glass that Mel had and reinserted it.

“Ok, let’s try to turn it over again,” Mac suggested to Mel. She hopped up in the cab and turned the engine over. It hesitated but caught. “I don’t know how long that will hold, so if I was you I would drive straight to my mechanics.”

After getting out of the still running truck, Mel threw her arms around a startled Mac, “Thank you SO much! You don’t know how much I appreciate this!” She then hopped back into her truck and pulled away. He went back to his Jeep, this time with a smile on his face. It was crazy how just being able to help someone could put you in a better mood.

When he pulled into the driveway he noticed that Jack’s SUV was already parked; now maybe he could get some answers since the jerk wouldn’t text him back! Walking into the house he didn’t see anybody.

“Jack?” He called out.

Bozer stuck his head out of the living room, “We’re all in here. You’ve got to see what Jack did.” Mac made his way into the living room after shedding his jacket and washing his grimy hands. The three of them were gathered around Riley’s laptop, and he could kind of make out an office.

“What’s going on?” Mac questioned, coming closer to get a better look, recognizing Dawn Reeves’s office.

“Me being a genius is what’s going on. I guess being around you has finally started to pay off.” Jack was beaming with pride.

“What did you do?” Mac’s voice held a note of apprehension.

Riley answered, “I hate to agree with Jack, but it was pretty smart. Even if I had to do a fire drill with a class.” She sent a brief glare in Jack’s direction, but he ignored it. “So after he pulled the alarm, and Mrs. Reeves ran out, he ..”

Jack interrupted her. “Hey, MY genius idea, I’m the one that gets to tell it. So there I was just me and the fire alarm.”

“Get to the point Jack.” This time Riley interrupted him.

“Fine, so after she left I started my search, but soon realized that she has way too much stuff for me to search before I had to leave. So I asked myself, ‘what would Mac do’ and it came to me! I set up a video call to Bozer, set my phone on silent, and hid it in the office with a clear view of her desk. That way if she does anything we’ll see it.” Jack still had that smug look on his face. “And if it’s discovered I can just say that I set it down while cleaning, and forgot to pick it up!”

Mac hated to admit it, but it was a pretty genius move. “So how much longer do we have on the camera before your phone dies, and has anything incriminating happened yet?”

Bozer answered the second question first, “She has taken a few suspicions phone calls, from a phone we haven’t seen before. I’m thinking it was the one that you saw the other day. But she hasn’t said anything that the courts would use as evidence. And by my calculations, there are thirty minutes to an hour left on that phone. So let’s just hope she does something illegal fast.”


	15. Hump Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one of my favorite chapters, and I couldn't wait any longer to share it with y'all. All incidents in have really happened, believe it or not! As they say truth is stranger than fiction (There are SO many examples of this!) Thanks to booksfallquietly for looking this over, and as always I don't own MacGyver.

The day started out well. The birds were singing, he had a great breakfast, was wearing a Superman shirt, and the school was quiet. Jack was thinking about all the candy he planned to hand out tonight for Halloween and was mentally debating on what he wanted Bozer to make him look like. Right then Jack was leaning towards a zombie soldier. Then he heard over the radio, “We need a janitor in the gym for a number four.”

Jack groaned inwardly when the kids got off the bus or were dropped off they either went to the gym or cafeteria. With more than half the kids of the school in the gym, it was loud, and knowing his luck the kid probably blew chunks on the bleachers. And the bleachers were a bitch to clean up. With a sigh, he picked up the radio, and replied, “I’m on my way.” Grabbing the cart he made his way to the gym, a few kids greeting him, a couple with hugs. Mac had been right, the kids did seem to like him, and the upper grades just wanted to help him, which he didn’t mind at all. Heck, he now knew most of the gossip in the seventh and eighth grades thanks to a couple of his helpers. Too bad they didn’t know who had a lot of money. One of the kids did say that his mom, Mel a sub at the school, had been a bit more generous with his ice cream money lately, so that might bear further exploration if nothing else popped up.

Upon arriving at the gym he was happy to learn the kid had only puked on the floor, so it was an overall easy cleanup. Jack enjoyed seeing all the different kids dressed as superheroes. Most of them were the usual comic book characters, but he spotted a few unique caped crusaders.

He had just gotten back to the hallway where the bell rang to dismiss kids to their classes, and he was overran with students. He was retreating to the janitor’s closet, when a teacher stuck her head in, and told him that there was already a spill in the hall. He grabbed the mop and spent the next five minutes directing the students around the wet spot until it dried, and most of the students were in their classrooms. This was his favorite time of the day, Jack liked to walk the hallways and hear the different teachers talking to their students and preparing them for the day.

“Good morning class!” Came from a doorway.

“Does anybody have any money to turn in?” Came from another

“Ok, does anyone see where I left my glasses?”

“Sit down, and be quiet!!” He was pretty sure a sub was in that room.

“Let’s get started on our morning work. So we can all clip up!”

And so on, he ducked into one of the first grade rooms to say the pledge with the class, and then quickly exited again after the teacher offered to send him some of her students as helpers. He was making his way to start the garbage can pickups in the hallway when Mrs. Cindi, stepped out of her classroom.

“I am so glad to see you, Mr. Jack! Would you mind terribly to keep an eye on my class so I can run to the bathroom real quick?” Her eyes were pleading him for him to say yes.

“No problem!” He agreed easily.

“Thank you, they should be working on their morning work!” She tossed back as she scuttled off towards the teacher’s restrooms. He stepped into the classroom and leaned up against the wall. The kids seemed to be quietly working on their work. A couple waved, but everybody stayed in their seats. Mrs. Cindi came back quickly. “Thank you so much! You would think that being an old teacher like I am I would have trained my body to go only at activity and lunch!” Jack didn’t think she looked that old, maybe in her late forties, with long dark hair and a very tan complexion. She was a bigger lady but wore it well.

Jack smiled back at her, “It was no problem, they were great.” With that he made his escape. The gossip was that her real name was Cinnamon and that she was a man-eater. One of the seventh graders had told him that several of the dads of his class had dated her at various times through elementary school. So he was going to be staying away from that, he hated ditching girlfriends when the op was up.

He spotted Mac wearing his Flash T-shirt coming down the hallway. “I still think that you should have gone with the full suite, especially the face mask.”

“It’s a cowl, and none of the other teachers dressed up that much,” Mac responded.

“Oh, I forgot to ask if you saw Nicole, the sixth- grade teacher yesterday.” Jack had forgotten to check with the others to make sure they had seen her.

“No, why?” Mac looked puzzled.

“She was dressed as a nun.” Jack started laughing again and started to pull out his phone to saw Mac the picture he had gotten Janice to take of them. Then he remembered he had to retrieve his phone sometime today. “I have a picture, that I’ll show you when I get my phone back.”

Mac broke out in a big smile. Jack couldn’t decide if he thought the nun thing was funny or the fact that Jack sacrificed his phone instead of Mac doing it for him. “I can’t wait to see it, but I better get going.” Then Mac was gone. Jack sighed, he supposed it was time to go sweep the seventh and eighth- grade rooms and see if any of the students had earned the privilege of helping him clean. He had almost reached the classroom when the walkie squawked, ‘We need a janitor in the gym for a code 1’

Jack sighed and did an about -face, no way he was cleaning up a pee puddle without gloves and a mop. He passed a little girl who had tears running down her face, and a wet stain on her pants; she was headed towards the Kindergarten classrooms. As soon as he opened the door to the gym he spotted the puddle in the middle of the floor. Coach Deere came over to greet him.

“How you doin this morin?” Jack thought his accent was thick sometimes listening to all the Californians all the time, but Nick Deere’s accent was downright country. But it matched the man well. He was a tall well- built guy who had muscles, but not the gym type, the type developed from years of working on a farm. Jack enjoyed coming to the gym to hang out with Nick, who had introduced himself as ‘Nick Deere, yep, just like the tractor!”

“I don’t know what to tell ya, man” Nick shook his head. “We were playing with the parachute and as I walked ‘round. I noticed a puddle around Milly. I asked her if she needed the potty, and the kid bursts out in tears. So I called for you and sent her to get some more clothes. I didn’t think I was that scary.” Nick sighed and turned back to the rest of the grade mostly sitting on the bottom row of the bleachers. At around 6’3 Jack could see why some of these smaller kids would be a tiny bit scared of the large man.

Jack shook his head, “I wouldn’t be worried about it, you know how some kids are.” He then got busy moping the puddle up and bleaching the area clean. He was just about to ask if Nick needed anything else when the radio went off again.

“We need a janitor in the office for a code 5. I replete a code 5!”

Nick looked confused, “What’s a code 5?”

With a sigh, Jack pulled off his gloves and picked up the walkie. “It means there’s a critter loose in the office.” Then he keyed the walkie, “This is Jack I’m on my way.”

With a wave to Nick, Jack decided that it would be easier to go out the front door of the gym than to walk through the school. Then an idea popped into his head, he could retrieve his phone while he was trying to capture whatever this animal was. He hoped it wasn’t a mouse, he hated mice. Their naked tails, their long whiskers, and those creepy little eyes, he shuttered even thinking about them. Opening the door into the office he could see Janie laughing, and Nurse Debby was shaking her head.

Janie was the first to notice him, “I’m glad you’re here! Somehow a cat has gotten into the office!”

“A cat?” Jack was confused by how a cat could have gotten into the school.

“Yep,” Nurse Debby agreed. “I think it ran into Mrs. Reaves’s office.

Perfect thought Jack, just what he needed to get my phone back. “Poor cat will never know who captured him.” The ladies laughed, and he entered the office, closing the door behind him both for privacy, and so the cat wouldn’t get out again. He quickly grabbed his phone and put it in his pocket, then got to looking for the cat. Dang, it was good at hiding. He looked under the desk and found a gun taped under there, interesting. He examined it as much as he could without touching it. Beretta M9 if he wasn’t mistaken. Back to looking for the cat, he stood up and started examining the shelves. Once a cat got into Mac’s house and had hidden it’s self so well that he was sent to buy cat food to tempt it out. He was contemplating this very idea when he spotted the culprit curled on top of some books in the very back of the black shelves.”Hey little buddy. If you wouldn’t bite ole Jack I’d really appreciate it.” He started reaching for it then stopped. “Or claw me.” He slowly reached for the little black ball of fluff, petted its small head, then scooped it up and cradled it. Jack smiled when he realized that it was purring, content to be held.

He opened the door with his free hand and walked out victoriously. Janie cooed over the small animal. “It’s so cute! Where did you come from little boy? You’re so cute! Yes, you are!” Using her regular voice instead of the baby voice she used to talk to the cat. “I wonder where it came from? Surely someone would have noticed a kitten walking in with them, wouldn’t they?” She sighed and petted the cat still snuggled in Jack’s arms. “What should we do with it? “ The three of them were contemplating the next steps when the inter-school phone rang.

“Office. Yes.” Then Janie started laughing. “Yep, we found it. Ok, I’ll call the parent and let them know.” Janie was laughing hard enough that she couldn’t breathe for a minute. Jack was looking at Angie wondering what was so dang funny. When Janie finally caught her breath she said, “So I found out where the cat came from. Apparently one of the kindergarteners decided to bring it for show and tell. After they got back from activity the kid noticed their kitten was missing and started crying. I’m fixing to call the mom.” Janie pulled out a binder of students and found the appropriate one, and dialed the number.

“Mrs. O’Neill? This is Janie from Lawrence Elementary, how are you today? That’s good to hear, I’m calling about Samantha. She brought her cat to school today for show and tell. It’s fine, we have it up here in the office. That’s fine, ok see you then.” Then she hung up, still grinning ear to ear. The mom was wondering where the cat had gotten off to, she’ll be here soon to pick it up.”

Jack reluctantly handed the now sleeping cat to Janie, wanting to see the mom’s reaction, but knew he had too many things piling upon him. He hadn’t even had a chance to empty out the hall garbage cans yet, and he knew they would need them at the end of the day for all the Halloween parties. He made short work of the cans and was in the middle of sweeping out a classroom when the walkie came on again. “Mr. Jack, we have a code 3 in the computer lab. Nurse Debbie, could you also come with a wheelchair?”

Jack snatched up the walkie, “10:4” He then quickly grabbed his cart, and gloves and hustled down to the computer lab, hoping it wasn’t Riley that was bleeding. He pushed the door open and saw Riley in her Wonder Woman T-shirt with a built- in cape, holding a wad of paper towels to a student’s nose.

“Hey, Mr. Jack” She greeted him. “We had a situation over here.” Riley wasn’t able to get more out because Nurse Debbie came into the room, and zeroed in on her patient. She took over paper towel duty and quickly wheeled him away.

Jack gave her a look to ask what had happened.

She sighed, “One minute I’m checking to make sure everybody was working on what they were supposed to be. Then I turn around, and there is a river of blood cascading down his face, all down his shirt, all over the floor, and keyboard area. Though I don’t think he got any on the actual keyboard.” She paused giving it some thought. Then realizing it wasn’t important, continued her telling of the story. “So then I called for you, and here you are.”

He started today ‘Good job Rils’, but realized that they were still at the school, so he settled for, “That was some quick thinking Ms. Davis.”

Riley grinned, “Thank you, Mr. Jack.” Then Jack got to work cleaning up the literal bloody mess and disinfecting the whole area. He was almost done when Riley announced to the class that it was time to head back to class. Good, he was going to be able to talk to her for a few minutes. After all the kids left, she crossed back to where he was bleaching the last of the splatters. “He about scared the crap outta me! When I first saw all the blood pouring down his face, I thought he had been shot or something, then I realized that it was just a nose bleed. You know what they say, ‘When you hear hooves think horses, not zebras’.”

Jack quirked his eyebrow, “I’ll see that quote and raise you, ‘Occam’s Razor, the simplest answer is usually the correct one.”

Riley laughed, “You’ve been hanging out with Mac so much that you’re starting to sound like him.”

Jack smiled back, “It could be worse, he could start sounding like me.” They both laughed. Jack sighed, “Well, I’ve got to get going, is this your lunch period?”

Riley stood up from where she had been leaning up against the table. “Nope, it’s my free time unless someone has a computer problem. They bumped knuckles, and he rolled the cart back to where it belonged. Looking at the time he decided to go visit Mac and Casi and let them in on the cat story, and the nose bleed story. He was headed down the hallway when one of the kindergarten teachers stuck her head out saw him and motioned him inside. He went in figuring they were going to fill him on the whole cat story. Once he stepped in the room though, Sena directed him to close the door behind him.

May was sitting in her teacher’s chair with her phone out. Sena and Kim were seated at a large table finishing their lunches.

Sena explained what was going on, “Mrs. Greaves gave me this number to call and vote for her. She’s in a music teacher competition and every vote counts! May’s gonna call on speaker first so the rest of us will know what to do. We want to make sure you get a chance to vote!” Sena kept a perfectly straight face, but Jack could sense that something was up. He and Mac had pulled too many pranks for his spidey senses not to be tingling.

May asked, “You ready now? We don’t have all day.” She seemed a bit testy to Jack. Kim snorted, and Sena told her to go ahead and call. Sighing she punched in the number and put it on speakerphone. ‘Hello, you have reached elite escort services. If you would like to talk to a male please press 1, if you would like to…” May quickly hit the end button. Kim and Sena were laughing loudly, while May was staring in bafflement at the phone. “You think I hit a wrong number or something? Maybe I should try again?”

Jack could help but join in the laughter at this point. Sena grabbed the paper that the number was written on. “This was given to one of the third- grade teachers, by the ‘Air Med’ rep this morning. He accidentally inverted some numbers. It’s been makin the rounds.”

May was shaking her head, “That was a setup?!? Sena, really!” Sena didn’t look repentant at all. “Just you wait, I’m going to get you one of these days! And it’s going to be a good one!”

Jack left the room still laughing, heading towards the gym. He opened the door to chaos. He was expecting to see Mac and Casi sitting behind the scorekeeper’s table watching the kids run around. But Marie was standing a couple of feet in front of the door, holding the arm of a kid that had what looked like red marker all over them, while yelling at the rest of the class to line up. She turned around at the sound of the door opening and saw him. She looked relieved to see him.

“Mr. Jack, you wouldn’t happen to know where Mr. Mac is?” She asked with what sounded like desperation.

“No, I haven’t seen him. I thought Casi was here today?”

Marie sighed, “Apparently one of her boys broke his arm at the high school. I just got here about fifteen minutes ago, and haven’t seen Mac at all. This one has blood all over her and needs to go to the nurse. But I don’t know where he is at, and they’ve got activity in a little bit.” She paused looking frazzled. “I think.”

Jack looked at the little girl who he thought has marker all over her, and realized that is was smeared blood, and that it was coming from a small cut on her forehead. Putting a hand on Marie’s shoulder, “I’ll tell you what. I’ll take this one to the nurse, and ask the office if they have seen Mac. You can take the others back to the classroom, and find out what they are doing today. Does that sound ok?”

Marie nodded her head looking relieved, “Thank you so much! You’re a lifesaver!”

Jack smiled, and squatted down to look the little girl in the face, “So what’s your name darling?”

“Athena” She then tried to put her hand into her mouth.

Jack grabbed the hand gently, “Let’s not do that! I don’t think the blood on your hands would taste good right now.” She giggled and obediently dropped her hand to her side. Marie handed Jack her other arm, then they were off to see the nurse. Athena was pretty quiet for the trip to the nurse’s office.

Nurse Debbie got one look at her and proclaimed, “Oh Mylanta!” Then she ushered both of them into the office, and Jack found Mac. Upon seeing Athena’s bloody state Mac squatted down and asked her what had happened to her. She looked down at her feet, not answering.

Mac prompted her, “Athena?”

The little girl sighed, “When Mrs. Casi left several of us wented under the beecheers, and I hited my head under thems. I didn’t want to tell Ms. Marie, so I just kept on wippin it away. But then she founded us and made us come out.“ Athena then let the tears that had been building start to slide down her blood streaked cheeks creating clear paths.

Mac sighed, “This is why you don’t play under the bleachers; see you’re getting your pretty Catgirl outfit all bloody. Ok, hop on up here beside Chris and let Nurse Debbie take care of you”

Jack just watched the whole scene take place. He guessed Mac had brought the little boy up here just before Marie had come in. Mac walked over to him and stood beside him; he rubbed his face and ran a hand through his hair. “What a day, and it’s not even over! We had just gotten to the gym when Casi got the call that her son had broken his arm, so she got Marie to come in. Then that one.” He pointed at the sandy- haired little boy holding an icepack to his head. “Just smacks the crap out of his head on the floor, I mean I heard the thud of head meeting floor.” Mac shook his head. “I’ll admit that it scared the crap out of me, for a few minutes I had seriously thought he might have killed himself he was so still.” Mac let out a deep sigh, “Then he began to just wail. So I scooped him up and hauled brought him up here, and that all happened before Marie even got here. Thankfully Debbie thinks he’s fine, but his mom’s coming to pick him up and is going to take him to the doctor just to be on the safe side. “

Nurse Debbie was done with Athena by that time and stepped over to talk to them. “I’ll need Marie to fill out an incident report for me, but Athena’s fine, but I’m going to go ahead and call her mom, just to be on the safe side.”

Jack said, “Well I guess I’m out” He started to leave then turned back to Mac, “You might want to call Marie and let her know what’s going on she has no clue where you are, and looked a little frazzled.” Mac nodded that he understood, and Jack was away, determined to go grab some lunch, maybe hide in that spot Ricky had shown him so no one could find him. Speaking of Ricky where was he today? He was pretty sure the big guy was here, but he hadn’t seen him all day, and he hadn’t taken any of the radio calls.

He had just reached the far-side lounge where he kept his lunch, and was opening the refrigerator after greeting several teachers in there when the radio went off again. “We need a janitor for a number 2 in Mrs. Cindi’s room”. Jack waited with his hand on the fridge door, hoping against hope that Ricky would answer it. “Would a janitor please respond?” Resigned, he picked up the walkie, “I’m on my way.” He answered.

Sighing he left the lounge ignoring the expressions on the teacher’s faces and trudged up the hallway to the first- grade room. He opened the door with his key, and Cindi pounced on him. “Thank goodness you are here! I don’t know which one of the little br…” She stopped herself. “Which one of my kids did this, or else they would have to help you clean it up.” Jack managed to slide by her and went to go look in the bathroom for himself. There a couple of feet from the toilet was a single piece of poo lying on a piece of toilet paper. Jack sighed, stepped into the bathroom, picked a couple more pieces of toilet paper up off the floor, dropped it on top of the poo, picked up the whole thing, and dropped it into the toilet. With a flush all that was left was a little bleach on the floor then clean up was complete.

Coming out of the bathroom Cindi acted like he had just rescued her from a dragon. He quickly waved at the kids and made his escape. Those leftovers from Monday were calling his name. He might not be at Bozer’s level of cooking but his fiesta had turned out delicious if he said so himself. This time he was able to get through his lunch, and the afternoon was a breeze. Just about every classroom that he walked by invited him in for some of their party food. Jack helped himself to some of his favorites, ‘cause it would be rude not to, right?

It was about an hour before school let out when he decided to go check in on the Pre-Kers and Athena. The door was open and a move was going, which wasn’t unusual since it was their nap time. He stepped in and noticed only about seven kids sitting at their seats with plates, while Mac and Marie were at the desk with their plates. He strolled in uninvited.

“Now this is one heck of a party.” He said in greeting as he pulled himself a chair up to the desk.

Marie leaned forward so he could see her, “Oh it was!” Then she laughed. “It was crazy earlier, most of the parents already checked out their kids, these are the only ones left.” She sat back and took a bite of cookie, “I like it, it’s peaceful.” Mac who had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed nodded.

Jack then actually noticed what Marie was wearing. “What are you wearing?”

Marie grinned back at him, “Like?” She stood up and twirled to give him the full effect. “I was surprised you didn’t say anything about it earlier, but it was kinda crazy.”

“Kinda crazy? Jack laughed, then really looked at the dress thinking for a second, “It looks familiar. It’s not Wonder Woman is it?”

Marie made a disgusted sound, “Wonder Woman wished she had this dress.”

Mac sighed, and with his eyes still closed, “It’s from the first Captain America movie, one of the USO dancing girls.”

Jack smacked himself on the head, “That’s it! I knew it looked familiar! I don’t remember those boots though.”

Marie grinned, “Them, I made myself, sparkly aren’t they?”

Her dress top was a blue halter top dress, with the skirt part alternating blue and white. She had a bright red cummerbund, which matched her gloves, and a matching red jacket. Her shoes were silver sparkly boots that came up to her knees. They reminded him of a disco ball. “So which superhero are you?”

She answered cheekily, “I’m Super Substitute! Duh! I swear I thought I would get more recognition in a school.” She sighed dramatically.

Mac chuckled, “Did you see her for career day?”

Jack frowned thinking. “I don’t think so why?”

Marie grinned, “Well sir, I was a very famous actress.” She went on the regale Jack with her movie titles. What was left of the school day went quickly, but Jack was not looking forward to cleaning up all the crumbs and spills in all the classrooms. Matty had better be letting him keep his school salary for this! Walking into the janitor’s closet he almost ran into Ricky.

“Hey man, so I need to apologize for today.” Ricky wouldn’t look him in the eye. “I really slacked, then the kid got hurt and Casi had to take off. So I’ll tell you what, you go ahead and take off, and I’ll finish up here.”

Jack’s eyes widened in surprise. “Are you sure?” He didn’t want to question the man, but it was a lot of work for one person.

“Yeah, it’s the least I can do, especially for dunking all the radio calls. I’ll get half of it today, and the rest tomorrow morning. It’s not a big deal.”

Jack thought that sounded fair. If he was feeling charitable in the morning he might come early and help. “That’s awesome of you, thanks!” Jack stepped past him grabbed his jacket, signed out, and left the place in his rearview.

He managed to arrive back at the house right after Riley for once. When he stepped in the door, Mac and Riley were surprised, until he explained what Ricky had done. But his suspicious mind wouldn’t let go of it.

“Riley, could you do a deep look at their family? They could be the ones behind the counterfeiting with Dawn. I find it highly suspicious that he is willing to do all the work, after slacking all day. When Bozer gets in I’m going to go out and watch the surveillance videos to see if he really is cleaning.”

It turned out that Ricky made his son, the one who broke his arm, help him out with all the sweeping. Riley turned up some stuff on the family but, it wasn’t any deep debts or had anything to do with a cartel. Back to square one, again.


	16. Giving Back pt 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! Hope everybody is doing well! I celebrated my birthday yesterday! I couldn't decide to post part 1 and 2 together or on different days. So I may post part two sooner than usual depending on my schedule. I was very disappointed to find out that nobody purchased MacGyver for me, so I guess I just have to keep on writing fanfiction, lol. Thanks to booksfallquietly for looking this over.

Thursday and Friday passed quickly with nothing new to show, except all of the school knew Mac liked to fix things. He had expected this after fixing the microwave the first week, but Mel was the one telling everybody who held still long enough. Each day had several teachers bringing him things that the kids had messed up for him to work his magic on. It was fun, but tiring. Now it was Saturday, the day he had promised Marie he would pick her up and help with her church’s Community Thanksgiving dinner, He wished he could sleep in, but daylight was burning as Jack would say. He arrived at Marie’s house ten minutes before the appointed time. He debated whether to go to the door and knock or just to wait in the Jeep and text her. He inner Jack told him that a gentleman always knocks, so with a sigh, he got out of the vehicle and was about to knock when Marie opened the door.

With a bright smile, “I’m glad you’re here!” She then thrust a crock-pot full of something into his hands. “Could you put this in the Jeep? I’ve got a few more things to grab to take with us, and then we’ll be ready to roll. By the way, do you want anything to drink, some of my hot chocolate?”

He debated about getting anything, but he had liked the little bit she had given him. “I’ll take a small cup.”

Marie grinned at him, “Coming right up!” She then let the storm door close and retreated into the house. He carefully placed the crock-pot in the back floorboard and tried to figure out what the mixture in it was. The first description that came to mind was puke, it looked like puke. Unable to figure it out, he decided just to ask Marie when she got back out. He just got back to the door when Marie popped back out with a box. “If you’ll take this, I’ll grab the drinks and we’ll be on our way!”

Mac did as requested and soon they were driving down the road. She gave direction very similar to Jack, using landmarks instead of road names; it must be a Southern thing. His curiousity piqued he asked Marie, “So what’s with using landmarks instead of miles and street names?”

Marie laughed, “Well I think it’s bred into us. I can only speak for myself, but I am crap at distances and street names, so if you tell me to go 12 miles and take a right on Kitty Street, it’s going to be a struggle.” She held up a finger, “But if you tell me to keep going straight till you see the gas station then turn right, it’s much easier. Also, I don’t have to slow and try to read every street sign I come across.”

Mac had to admit, it did make sense. Marie added a second later, “Plus if you are in Atlanta, half of every street is named Peachtree, so landmarks are a must. I don’t remember half of the streets it took to get to my aunt’s house there, but you give me a familiar place and I could get you right to her doorstep! Also, take this next right, then the next left and we are the first church on the right.”

“First church?”

Marie chuckled again, “One thing our town is blessed with are car lots, banks, and churches. I wonder what that says about us?”

Mac pulled into the parking lot and parked the Jeep. Marie turned to look at him. “I’ve got to go in here to disarm the security system. So if you just want to wait I’ll get it turned off and the door unlocked.” Mac nodded, and she hopped out, quickly climbed the few steps, unlocked the door and dashed in the church. Mac got out and was grabbing the mysterious crock-pot when Marie came back out.

“Ok, so what is in here?” He was pretty sure it wasn’t vomit.

She shot him a questioning look. “It’s dressing, didn’t you say you wanted to try some?”

Mac’s eyebrows rose, that wasn’t what he was expecting. “It looks watery, and not very editable.”

Marie laughed loudly, “That’s because it’s not done yet. I just mixed it up, it needs to cook a few hours. It’s usually made in a casserole dish and baked, but I promise you it will be good.”

Mac looked at her dubiously, “If you say so. It’s cold out here, let’s get this stuff in.” He handed her the crock-pot filled with dressing and grabbed the box, locking the Jeep and following her inside.

“So the fellowship hall is where we’ll be set up is down this hall and then downthe steps. To get anywhere in this church you have to either go up or down a flight of steps, so be prepared.” Marie led the way. When they came to the bottom of the stairs she set down the crock-pot and went to a closet to turn on the lights. Mac heard the sound of breakers being thrown, and the lights came on.

When she stepped out of the closet he had to ask, “Are you using the circuit breakers as your light switches?”

“We’re noting but high tech here.” She said with a shake of her head.

“Do you know how dangerous that could be?” Mac was concerned.

“So I’ve heard. I’m frankly surprised that the building hasn’t burned down by now. Truthfully I consider it a miracle of God, and I wish I was kidding.” Now that the power was on he could see how dated the kitchen area was. It had a stove, two old refrigerators, a food warmer, and not much else besides the counter and shelves. He noticed a foul order in the air but didn’t want to mention it, but Marie did. “What the heck is that….” She trailed off walking over to the warmer and opened the door the smell got worse. “Great, it still stinks!”

Marie must have picked up on Mac’s puzzlement and explained it. “You remember the other day when I was complaining ‘bout how everybody was texting me?” Mac nodded, and she continued. “So apparently after the last lunch we had were, which was several months ago something was left in the warmer. It completely rotted. I was told that mold had even eaten through the aluminum foil.” Marie shuttered.

Mac smiled, “Well if it was left tightly wrapped in this warmer, I can understand how that could happen. If you are interested, the breaking down of the food probably produced… Mac trailed off recognizing the glazed look like the one that Jack got when he goes full nerd on him.

Marie apologized,” Sorry, science isn’t one of my strong suits. But look at how organized the warmer is.” She gestured like she was Vanna White. Mac did notice that all the trays were labeled with duct tape. “Did that awhile back so we wouldn’t have to go huttin for a specific item. So if you will follow me in here, and I’ll get the crock-pot going.” She grabbed the crock-pot and led him into another hall that had lots of doors both on the right and left.

“These are all either storage rooms or old Sunday school rooms, or both.” She continued talking as they went into the first room on the right. The room was big and mostly empty; a few odds and ends lying around, and two folding tables. “If you could grab me that power strip out of the box, I would appreciate it.”

Mac stepped back in the main room. The main room was spacious with wood paneling that was popular in the ‘70s. The only ornamentation on the walls was a single tapestry of ‘The Last Supper’ hanging by the stairs. The room was filled with tables and chairs. The tables were bare, and Mac hoped that they would decorate them somehow. It always made him feel sad when the soup kitchens he volunteered at quit trying to look nice. He went to where he had set the box, rummaged around till he found the power strip, grabbed it and took it back to Marie. Soon enough she had the crock-pot plugged up and cooking away.

“So we need to decorate, get set up, put everything where I want it, and if you want I’ll give you the ten- cent tour. Or you are free to roam around the church as you wish.” She stopped wrinkled her forehead, “Dang it! I left my drink in your car.” She groused. “Mind if I borrow your keys to go grab it?”

Mac offered, “How about I come with, because I left mine in there also, then you can give me a tour.” Jack and his training officers at spy school drilled into him to know as much about where he was at as possible. The two tramped back up the steps and back to the door. Mac volunteered to go and grab the drinks.

“Thanks, I like to keep the door locked when I’m here,” Marie said. Mac knew there had to be a story behind that, but it would have to wait until he had the deliciously warm drinks in hand. He quickly liberated the two cups, thankful that they were warm on such a frigid day, and quickly made his way back into the church where Mare was holding the door open for him. She quickly accepted her drink and took a deep drink.

Mac laughed, “So what’s the story with the locked door?”

Marie sent him a wily look, “I was wondering if you had picked up on that.” With a sigh, she said, “Several years ago, a friend and I were painting our Sunday school room, and we thought nothing of leaving the door unlocked, especially since we knew our Sunday school teacher was bringing us some equipment. So we are working and all of a sudden we hear someone clear their throat behind us. I thought it was our teacher, but when I turned around it was a stranger who had came in to beg for money. Scared the living daylights out of me! This isn’t the nicest neighborhood; heck my car’s been broken into. Since then I’ve been a lot more cautious.”

Mac nodded, it made a lot of sense. “So let’s have that tour, but I might have to owe you the money, ten cents is a lot.”

“Tell me about it! They don’t pay us subs hardly anything. Did you know that we technically make less than minimum wage? We get $50 dollars a day, $25 for half day.” With a savage shake of her head, she changed the subject, “So through this door is the sanctuary, and we’re walking.” Marie opened the white door into the sanctuary of the church. “And this is, what the heck?”

Mac directed his attention from looking over the unfamiliar room to where Marie was looking. In one of the panes of stained glass was a gaping hole. “So I’m going to assume that is not usually there?” Mac asked joking.

“Yeah, that would be a huge no.” Marie then headed over to the other side of the church where the window was located. There was glass scattered over several of the pews. Marie sighed, “Well this is going to be fun to clean up. Guess it’s a good thing that I’m also one of the janitors, and I just freaking vacuumed yesterday!” She growled under her breath. “Why couldn’t they have done this before I vacuumed?”

Mac chuckled, “Is there anything you don’t do? Also if you are planning on vacuuming it up, do you know what type of bag is in the vacuum? Because if it’s a paper bag, the glass might tear right through the bag, and make an even bigger mess.”

Marie sighed; she was still staring at the damage. “Nope, I’m a one lady show. It’s hard on Sunday’s when I have to both preach and be the audience.” She laughed. “Anything to earn a little bit more money, a girl’s gotta survive. And to answer your other question, yeah a paper bag is in there. I remember this because the other one exploded creating the mess you were just describing. Can nothing be easy?” She whined this last part while rubbing her face with the hand not holding the hot chocolate.

Mac agreed wholeheartedly, nothing ever went easy for him, like ever including this mission. “I know of a way to catch the glass so it won’t perforate the bag. Do you know where any pantyhose might be?” Mac knew it was a long shot, but it would work best in this situation.

Marie nodded, “You know what? I think I just might! This church has a little bit of everything, somewhere, but I think I might know where I can find some hose. If you want to follow me, and grab the vacuum, I’ll get the pantyhose, and you can show me your idea.”

Mac nodded and followed her out of the door on the other side of the sanctuary. It led them back into the hallway that had the steps leading down to the fellowship hall directly on their right. She turned left and into the church’s library, and opened a door that hid a small closet withheld the vacuum and a lot of flower arrangements.

“Want to guess at some of the other hats I wear?” Marie joked. Mac laughed. “If you’ll drag this old thing to the sanctuary and get it plugged up, I’ll hunt up some hose.” Mac nodded his agreement, and Marie took off.

Mac wrestled the vacuum into the sanctuary, suddenly thankful that Bozer took care of that particular chore for their house. He had finally got it all hooked up and was examining how it went together when Marie came back holding a pair of pantyhose. She grinned triumphantly, “I told you we were a bunch of hoarders!”

Mac took the proffered hose, brought out his knife and cut off several inches up from the toe. He then took the vacuum tube off, and slipped the hose over the hole, and poked it down a little bit then put it together again. “Ok this should suck the glass up, but just make sure than when you turn the vacuum off that the end is in the air, so the glass pieces won’t come tumbling back out.”

“You really are a freaking genius aren’t you?” Marie asked in wonder. She tried it and it worked like a charm. She turned off the vacuum and turned to Mac. “So this is probably going to take me a few minutes so if you want to go exploring while I finish up here go ahead.” She then turned back to vacuuming up the glass.

Mac decided to take the self- guided tour, heck maybe he could find those printing plates and stacks of one dollar bills! After wondering all around the church, and Marie wasn’t lying when she said they were a bunch of hoarders with a lot of steps. He was sorting through the box of items that Mare had brought from her house when Marie came back down the stairs

Mac looked up, “Finally got it all done?”

She gave him a deadpan look, “Finally got through snooping around the church?” Then she broke and started laughing. “You should have seen your face! Thanks for the hose suggestion it worked like a charm! So you ready to get some real work done?”

“Sure. What do we need to be doing?”

“I want to get this set up the way that I like it, then we can start decorating. We have some table clothes in the pantry, then we have some Thanksgiving decorations somewhere, and to add a little bit of cuteness, I have some turkeys that the Wednesday night kids made. Oh, and then my sister said she was coming and bringing a pizza. What do you like on it?”

Mac grinned, “I will eat pretty much anything on a pizza. I have one friend that will only eat meat lovers, another who enjoys weird combos, and a third who likes the classic pepperoni. Also didn’t you say that you needed to cook a turkey?”

A look of terror came over Marie’s face, and she slapped a hand over her mouth. “Holy crap! I freakin forgot about the stupid turkey!” She dashed into the kitchen area, opened the fridge, and pulled out a behemoth of a turkey. “If you could grab that pan that I brought in and the plastic bag from the box, I would appreciate it.” Mac had reached the box when she hollered. “Also if you could grab the container with the red top and the blue gloves that would be great!” He returned a few minutes later with the requested items. “Thank you so much! Ever cooked a turkey?”

Mac laughed, “I’m not known for my cooking skills, so my friends mostly have me set the table.”

Marie arched her eyebrow and grinned. “Well, today is your lucky day. Chef Marie will instruct you in the cooking of your first turkey.”

Mac wasn’t sure how he felt about that. He didn’t want to ruin any of the food, but Marie seemed sure that he wouldn’t mess anything up. “All right, tell me what to do!” Marie grinned and passed him a pair of gloves.

“I always used these, you don’t have too, I just hate getting all that ickiness on my hands,” Marie explained. Mac shrugged and donned a pair. They were standing at the sink where Marie had deposited the turkey with the items Marie has requested. “So the first thing is to set the oven temperature.” She stepped over and did just that. “Next is to get the turkey out of the packaging and seasoned. I brought my homemade secret seasonings from home.” She looked at Mac expectantly.

“Am I supposed to ask what’s in it?” he questioned.

“So since you asked, it has basil, rosemary, sage, and garlic.” She smiled at him,” Not a secret, but makes it taste freaking good! So where was I?”

“Unpackaging the turkey.” Mac reminded her.

She smiled, “Thanks, sometimes ADD sucks. So now that’s it’s unpackaged I’m gonna grab the olive oil to mix with the spices and we’ll rub it on the skin!” She grinned when she came back with the oil. “It’s getting a message before it gets roasted!” She laughed at her joke. Once they got the coating on Marie gave further instructions. “So we gotta fish the neck and giblets outta its butt, then fill it with those apples and oranges then I’ll drizzle the rest of this rub on it.“

“There is something shoved up the turkey’s butt? I thought..” Mac started to say, but Marie cut him off.

“Ok, so it’s not the turkey’s actually butt, but.” Marie laughed at her joke and tiled the turkey up and plunged her hand in the opening. “If you want to be technical I guess it’s the abdominal space, where the organs used to be. Fun fact, the turkey won’t turn out icky if you don’t remove this stuff. How do I know this you ask? Well, my first turkey neither my friend nor I knew about the neck and giblets so we roasted it with them in there. Imagine our shock when they slithered out later.” She laughed at the memory. “We may have screamed.” She fished what Mac guessed was the neck then a pouch out. She pointed to the neck and had a look that Jack would be proud of, “Looks like something else right?” She cackled as she threw the neck and giblets into the sink, and then shoved the fruit into the space. Mac had to laugh at the very Jack like joke. “So if you will grab the oven bag, we’ll shove her in, put her in the pan, and then Big Bertha gets roasted!” Mac helped Marie do exactly as she requested and soon Bertha was in the oven.

“So, do you remember what we were talking about before you saved my bacon?” Marie had wondered back out into the main part of the fellowship hall.

“I think you had just asked me my pizza preference, and I was telling you that I would eat just about anything.”

“Oh yeah!” Marie exclaimed. “This one will be half pepperoni and half just cheese if that’s ok? I’m the weirdo who only likes cheese on her pizza.” She motioned Mac over to where she stood at the bottom of the steps. “I would like to push that table” She pointed at a small teacher’s desk that held the plates and eating utensils. “To almost flush with the entrance to the kitchen, then line the two long tables up so that I can set my plates on that first table and we can serve from the other two. What I like to do is have the people come in from the outside door and get in line. Then we can serve them right down the line, and they can go sit and enjoy their food. “

Mac could see what she was saying, and it made a lot of sense to him too. So they go to moving tables and getting the arrangement correct. Marie had just opened the pantry to show Mac where they stored the table clothes when they heard the door alarm chime and a voice call out. “Hey loser, where you at?”

Marie hollered back, “Down here, freak face.” She rolled her eyes, “It’s my sister.”

Mac then heard someone coming down the steps noisily, and a girl who looked nothing like what Mac expected her sister to look like appeared with a pizza box. Setting eyes on Mac Marie’s sister’s eyes lit up, “Well hello there!”

Marie came around Mac to grab the pizza box out of her sister’s hands. “Brat this is Mac, Mac meets Brat. He is working at Lawrence filling in for Jessie right now.”

The sister nodded, and held her hand out, which Mac automatically took, “Most people just call me Annie. And it’s very nice to meet you, Mac. So you’ve got to have a girlfriend, she know that you’re hanging out with my loser sister?”

Mac tried to stammer out a response, but his voice failed him. He knew he was blushing. Thankfully Marie came to his rescue, “Annie behave, it’s none of your business if he’s got a girlfriend. He is here to help with the dinner, not to pick up girls.” She stopped and looked at Mac. “You’re not here to pick up girls, are you? Cause all your gunna find is a bunch of old ladies.” She got that grin again, and arched an eyebrow, “Unless wrinkly old ladies are your thing?”

That got a laugh out of Mac, “No, I’m not here to try to score a date old or otherwise.” He tentatively went over to where Marie had set the pizza.

Marie had walked back into the kitchen and was looking into one of the refrigerators. “You want a coke?”

Mac was pretty sure she was talking to him, “Sure.”

“Ok, what kind do ya want, Coke, Sprite, Sun Drop, or some sorta orange drink?”

Mac was confused, “Sprite I guess?”

“Comin’ right up!” Marie grabbed the drinks, and while carrying them over to Mac she addressed her sister. “Don’t you have something to be doing? And where is my mini-me?”

Annie quit her staring at Mac and looked at her sister. “She is with mom and dad, and yeah, but I don’t wanna go shopping. You owe me for that pizza, by the way.”

Marie handed Mac his drink and sat down, “It’s your gift to me. You make a lot more money than I do!” She grinned and took a huge bite of pizza. “Too bad, you better get going or you’ll be late getting back, and you know it will be all hands on deck.”

Annie sighed, “I’m fixin to.”

Marie shot her sister a look, “Quit fixin, and do it.”

“You sound like mom, and I’m going. You still owe me for that pizza!” Then turning up the wattage on her smile she looked at Mac. “It was a pleasure meeting you Mac. I’m looking forward to working with you later!” Then she turned and sashayed off.

Yelling after her, “Good luck getting blood out of turnips!” Marie then sighed and turned to Mac, “I apologize for her, sometimes I think I hit her too hard as a child.” She eyed him. “You need a plate or something? Dig in before it gets cold.”

Mac grinned, “You know some people would argue that it’s better that way.”

“You just hush your mouth! That would be sacrilege!” She seemed truly appalled at the thought. “So what do you think of our church?”

Mac took a bite, it was delicious. “This is great. And the church was as advertised. If I went to church I think I would enjoy coming here.”

“Yep, Annie got it from the best place in town, a little mom and pop place. Do you not go to church?” Marie looked puzzled.

Mac sighed not knowing how to describe his religious beliefs, “No, I don’t go to church. My grandpa took me some as a child because that’s what he thought my mom would have wanted, but it never really meant anything to me. I guess I’m too much of a scientist to really believe in the Christian version of God.”

Marie had a sad look on her face, “You do know there are scientists who are Christians, right? I was just reading about some of them the other day. There’s this dude, crap what was his name again? Andrew… it was something like Pinterest ummmm, Andrew Pinsent, that’s his name! he’s like this Catholic priest who also contributed to the creation of CERN, has degrees in physics and philosophy, and wrote a book on theology.” She took another bite of pizza. “Apparently Sir Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, and Galileo were all Christians. There were some other people including like one of the first ladies to win a Nobel Peace Prize, I remember she has an element named after her.”

“Lise Meitner.” Mac supplied.

Marie snapped her fingers, “Yep, that’s her. I know a little about a lot of things.” She took another bite of the pizza and grinned. “Just enough to be dangerous.”

“Fair point.” He conceded, “So how long have you lived here?” Mac figured now that conversation was flowing and food was being consumed would be a great time to try to grill her to see if you knew anything about what was going on at Lawrence Elementary.

“Born and raised here. I was born at a county hospital that is now a nursing home. Did I tell you that my parents used to teach at Lawrence Elementary?” Marie grabbed another slice of the pizza. “It feels like home, as funny as that sounds. I’ve done a lot of playing in those hallways!”

This was it he felt, if she didn’t know what was going it then nobody would, but how to broach the subject without straight out asking about it. Then it hit him, use the drug angle. “I bet you’ve seen a lot of changes over the years!” He got another slice of pizza himself, it really was delicious!

She laughed, “Like you wouldn’t believe! Buildings have been destroyed and built, teachers have come and gone, but I like to think the essence is still there you know. What makes Lawrence School is what it is. Does that make any sense what so ever?” She cocked her head and looked at him.

Mac nodded understanding what she was saying. He tried to choose his next words carefully not wanting to overplay his hand. “I’ve heard about how other rural county schools have been affected by the drug epidemic. Is that something you see affecting Lawrence?”

Marie fidgeted and started picking at her pizza, which were classic tells that she wanted to avoid the subject, but Cage had done a great job of giving the team some pointers on how to be a better interrogator. So he let the silence stretch until she answered, “Of course.” She paused again, and with a deep breath. “It’s horrible how some of the kids are affected. Kids of my classmates are telling me about mom and dad’s visits to rehab, and how they have to live with grandma or other family members. It’s so freaking sad.” She shook her head. “But what I think is the worst is that the….”


	17. Giving Back pt 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have y'all seen the previews? They look awesome! I have to admit I've watched it several times over! I felt so bad about that tiny little cliff-hanger that I decided to go ahead and post an extra chapter this week! I even included a little recipe for you at the bottom, warning it makes a LOT! As always I don't own MacGyver, and thanks to Booksfallquietly for looking this over.

They were interrupted by a loud knocking at the basement door. Mac swore under his breath, he knew she was about to tell him something important. He watched her unlock and open the door to admit an older couple carrying several items. He sighed, got up and went to offer help to the new people. Hopefully, he would have another chance to ask her what she thought was the worst.

Things got busy, _fast_ after that. More people started coming in bringing food. He understood exactly why Marie had set up the crock-pot station in the extra room. So many people brought in crock-pots that there would have never been enough room in the kitchen. When he complimented her on her thinking she laughed, and said ‘not my first rodeo’. “So when I get the turkey out of the oven think you could slice it?” Marie asked.

Mac fumbled for a second, he didn’t have any clue about how to slice a turkey, but he guessed he was about to learn. “Sure?” He agreed.

The look of relief and thankfulness was plain to see on her face. “I really appreciate it. Can you smell it? I think it smells great!” She walked back into the kitchen to check on everything.

It did indeed smell incredible; he decided he would make a call to Jack in a few minutes to get some tips on how to cut a turkey. Jack was always bragging that he was the one to cut the Dalton family’s Thanksgiving turkey. His cousin, Nick had messed it up so bad the first year that he was allowed the honor of cutting the turkey, that Jack had been named permanent turkey carver, a title he had coveted.

Mac shook his head and looked around the space appreciating the transformation from when he first got there. The tables were cheerfully decorated with festive orange table cloths and all had little pumpkins on them along with the turkey that the kids had made out of a toilet paper holder and half of a paper plate. People were all over, two older gentlemen were slicing cakes and pies, and another guy, who Marie had introduced as her dad was setting them on a table by themselves. Marie was directing people what to do in the busy kitchen. He looked in and she was rearranging the shelves in the warmer so the items would fit into the space that they had. He noticed that their sliced turkey was already covered and in the warmer. Marie saw him and gestured him over.

When he got to her she asked him, “So what do you want to do once we start serving? You can serve out on the line, or be a runner to exchange the pans of empty food for full ones, or you could go guard the desserts.” At his incredulous look, she responded, “Yep, the desserts have to be guarded, a couple of years ago they weren’t and we ran out in way too quickly!”

Mac his head,” I guess I can be a runner, is there any special instructions or anything?”

Marie laughed, “Yeah, that would be a huge no. Just be listening for me or someone else to holler that we need more of whatever item we might need. Basically, just see what needs doing and hop right in!”

A thin middle- aged lady with long wavy hair approached Marie, “So what do you need for me to do?”

Marie shrugged, “What do you want to do?”

“I can roll with anything.”

“Perfect!” Marie exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. “You can do the rolls.”

The lady nodded, “Well I can defiantly roll with that.” They both chucked at the bad pun. She then set her sights on Mac, “Hi, I’m Doris, and who might you be?”

Mac shook her hand, “I’m Mac, I work with Marie.”

Doris grinned what Mac categorized a creepy grin, but Marie ignored her. “So the pie needs about.” She looked at her Apple watch. “Twenty more minutes longer, then you can start browning the rolls”

Doris gave both of them a look and a grin, “Okey- dokey.’ With that, she walked off.

Marie sighed, “Let me go ahead and apologize for all creepy and weird behavior. Apparently, I’m not allowed to have any male friends.” She was about to say more, but her sister approached.

“So they said it would be six people,” Annie told them as she typed something on her phone. Marie placed her hand over the phone to make Annie look at them. She did so angrily, “I’m just replying to them. Chill.”

Marie removed her hand, “Sorry, you’ve always got your head in that thing.” That earned her a glare from her sister.

“Like you have room to talk.” She then placed the phone in her back pocket. “Better? Hi, Mac how are you doing?” She grinned at him.

“Knock it off. Did they say what time? Mac’s going to be a runner, so please help him, not hit on him, ok?” Marie shot her sister a glare.

“You only think your funny, and no they didn’t.” Annie’s phone dinged. “Am I allowed to get that?”

“Go away, and do something productive,” Marie ordered her sister. Annie had just turned around. “Wait! Fill Mac in on what we’re talking about and he can be in charge of putting it together and giving it to them!”

Annie nodded, “So this one.” She pointed at her sister. “Had the bright idea to invite the police to come by to eat. They said if they get to come it will be six officers. So what Mar wants you to do would be to make sure they have their boxes warm and ready to go whenever they might get here. Do you think you would be comfortable doing that?“ Mac nodded, already having several ideas on how to keep the food warm. “Awesome. If you need me, I’ll be chained to the stove cranking out mashed potatoes.” With that, she walked off.

Mac thought it was busy before, but he was wrong, the place looked like a beehive with people buzzing all over the place. All the volunteers were busy putting the final touches on the food, and Mac kept on losing track of where Marie was. Every time he stuck his head out of the kitchen he noticed that the line of people waiting for the food had grown significantly. Finally, Marie called for all the volunteer’s attention.

“First off I want to thank you for volunteering your Saturday to make this delicious food and to come and help serve it. It means a lot to both me and the community. We are truly showing God’s love tonight. Caleb, could you say a short prayer for us please?” After the prayer, Marie said, “Ok, I’m going to go find the preacher to bless this food and then we’ll start to serve, so if you are on the serving line please be getting to your spots, and remember to smile and ask if they want that particular item. Oh, and do not get a plate for yourself before the event is over. Y’all rock!”

With that, she strode out of the kitchen with several people going to take their places on the serving line. Mac could hear Marie call for everybody’s attention and her welcome, then the deep voice of the preacher as he blessed the food. As the line started to move so did the pace in the back. Annie was stirring two pots, another person was washing dishes, two were serving drinks, and he was busy running things to and fro.

The night seemed to take both forever and no time at all. The line had finally died down, and the food was mostly gone when Marie called time. She walked into the kitchen and announced that if you wanted to fix a plate to go ahead. Clean up was a lot more relaxed, a couple of new ladies came in just to help with the cleanup, and before Mac knew it, it was just him and the Presson sisters. They were sitting in folding chairs beside what used to be the dessert table.

Marie frowned and looked at her sister, “I don’t remember seeing coat lady. Did you see her?”

Annie furrowed her brow in concentration, “Now that I think about it, I don’t remember seeing her this year. That’s weird!”

Mac hesitatingly asked, “So who is coat lady.”

Annie laughed, “Marie, you tell it better.”

“So she is the reason that we have a strict limit of only two take out plates per person. A couple of years ago she asked for seventeen to- go plates.”

Mac couldn’t believe some people’s audacity. “But why do you call her coat lady?”

Marie continued, “Well a couple of years ago we decided to have a coat drive. We had a large rack filled with different sized coats, nice ones even! So she is the last one as usual, so I go over to see if she needed any help. She tells me that she needed a medium jacket. I’m like ‘Sure! We have several!’ and I proceed to pull out the first medium that I come to and show it to her. She looks at it and I kid you not says, ‘Not that one, but I’m not picky.’ She does this at least five different times each time telling me that she is not picky. She leaves without getting a coat. So we’ve called her coat lady ever since.”

“That’s crazy,” Mac said shaking his head.

“Yeah, stick a fork in me, I’m done,” Marie announced.

Annie glanced around, “It’s too far away.” Marie stuck her tongue out at her sister.. “Did the officers ever come to get their food?” Annie asked.

Marie shook her head, Mac added, “I have it all boxed up and ready to go.”

Marie sighed, “I’ll tell you what. Annie and I’ll both take one, and you can have the last four for your efforts! Let’s go ya’ll. I’m beyond tired, and ready to go do nothing for a little bit!”

Mac waved bye as he pulled out into the street and headed back to the house. While he never got the chance to finish talking to Marie he felt like he had done good there today, and he was bringing back food for him and the others, so that was a plus right?

The team was happy to have been brought food because they had been fighting about what to eat. Mac had walked in just as Bozer suggested that they try a plank off again. Mac had been worried for a minute that Jack would hurt himself laughing that hard.

The dressing was as good as described. Mac and Riley both agreed that they would rather have this than the stuffing that Bozer usually made.

“If y’all gonna be that way then you gonna have to make it yourself!” He challenged then crossing his arms as if he had already won.

“Done!” Mac refused to back down from a challenge. “I’ll just text Marie to get the recipe, and I’ll make it at Thanksgiving.” He pulled at his phone but nearly dropped it when both Riley and Jack shouted, “NO” at the same time both of them just about coming off the couch in their haste.

“Mac, you remember the last time you tried to cook something, I had to put the fire out? The inside of the chicken was still raw while the outside was charred. You, my friend ,are staying away from the stove.” Jack shook his head. “Either Riley or I will do the cooking.”

“Oh come on Jack it’s not that hard. And for your information, I helped cook the very turkey you are eating right now!”

Jack shot him a look. “This is how it would probably play out, you would forget to get it started in time, then decide that you could make the crock-pot more effective, and rewire it. After you got through fixing it up, you would rush through assembling the ingredients and inevitably leave something out. Then when it didn’t turn out, you would fiddle with it until it was uneatable, or you would get so wrapped up in a project that you would forget to take it off the heat or whatever, and it would burn, again.”

Mac opened his mouth to deny the allegations, but couldn’t because they were true and he knew it. “Fine, I’ll write down her instructions.”

Jack sat back in the couch, “Thank you. Now did you learn anything useful during your day date?”

Mac shot him a look from where he was sitting in the recliner. “It was not a date. I got enough side-eyes and probing questions to last me a lifetime from members of her church. I don’t need more from you.” Mac sighed, realizing how rough on Jack he was being. “Sorry, it’s been a long day. I’m done in, and no I didn’t learn anything useful to us.” He shook his head, closed the take-out container and set it on the floor. He was about to get up when his phone dinged. It was the recipe from Marie and a short thank you. He forwarded the recipe to Riley and Jack then got up. “I’m beat, I’ll see you tomorrow.

On Sunday everybody slept in grabbing a late brunch and eating in the comfort of the living room. Outside was dark and rainy, the kind of day where you did your best not to leave the house. They were chatting and unhurriedly eating their food when Bozer suddenly jumped up from where he was sitting. “Oh crap!”

Everybody looked at him, and Jack asked, “What’s going on?”

“We’re supposed to have a meeting with Matty at 1.” Everybody looked at their watches or phones, it was a quarter till one. As a unit, they all gathered up all their dishes and hurried to their rooms to change into clothes instead of the lounge clothes they were wearing. Both Riley and Mac were still trying to fix their hair when the laptop rang with an incoming call. Bozer hit the accept button and Matty’s picture popped up on their laptop screen.

“It’s about time you answered. I’m a busy woman, be ready.”

“Yes, ma’am.’ They answered as a group.

“Ok, so what do you have to report?” She looked very stern. They could see a tech come in and hand Matty a report. She glanced at it then back at her agents in Tennessee. “I’m waiting.”

Bozer finally spoke up, “Ummmmm, not much more boss. Jack got some video of Dawn Reeves, but nothing incriminating was on it. She is good at hiding her tracks. In fact Jack thinks someone might be training her.”

Jack nodded adding, “When I was searching her office for the cat, I did find a gun stashed under her desk.”

Matty eyed them, “Is that all that my best team has gathered in an entire week?” With each work, her voice had gotten louder. “When I sent you idiots in, I figured that it would take you a week at the most!” She stopped sighed and rubbed her temples. “I’m being generous and giving you one more week to complete your assignment, if you are unable to do so I will be turning this back over to the Secret Service, and you will return to LA. So if you don’t have a suspect in custody by end of the school day Friday your getting your pretty little butts back here pronto! Webber out!”

Everybody seemed to let out a sigh glad to have that over with. “I know this is crazy coming from me, but we need a plan,” Mac stated.

Jack nodded, “Ok, let’s see what all we have and see what we need to do to finish this.”

They all grabbed all the evidence they had gathered on the case in the last two weeks and reconvened in the living room. Since Jack was running the meeting he went first. “So what we do know is that there is a larger amount of counterfeit money coming into the school. That is the only thing we know for certain. We assume that Dawn Reaves is involved because of evidence we found at her house, the family has more stuff than they should, and her seeming paranoia. We also know that she is having an affair with Officer Coltrane.”

Riley asked, “Should we search his house, to see if the counterfeit operation is running out of there?”

Jack shook his head, “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

Bozer looked puzzled, “Why not?”

Mac answered the question, “If one of our houses was searched would we notice it?” All three nodded their heads. “The same principle would probably hold true. I say if we are still grasping for straws later in the week we take the risk, but right now I would hold off.”

Jack smiled at him, Mac felt happy that he had gotten it right. “Do we have any real suspects besides the ones that we just mentioned?” Everybody remained silent. Jack sighed, “I like the missions where we swoop in save the day then leave!” Another sigh, “Anything else need to be added to this pathetically slim pile of information?”

Bozer said, “What about the cartels?

Jack frowned, “What about them?”

“We’ve been hearing whispers of how they might be involved.” Bozer pointed out.

Mac replied, “But that’s just whispers. Which cartel? How involved are they? Is it drugs, girls, or just the money they might be involved with? We have so many more questions than we have answers. I felt like Marie was about to tell me something about the drug scene here, but we got interrupted, and never got a chance to talk to her again.”

Silence reigned over their meeting. Jack shook his head, “We are getting absolutely nowhere, and I haven’t a clue what our next step should be.” He paused running his hands over his head. “I’m going to see if we have to stuff to make my world- famous Texas chili, maybe something will come to me.” With that Jack left with Bozer following right behind him. Probably to make sure that Jack didn’t destroy his kitchen or their taste buds with the amount of heat Jack liked to add. Despite some good eats and more brainstorming, nobody came up with any actionable ideas. After some team games designed to get rid of all the stress, the four agents went to bed with the hope that tomorrow would bring some new ideas or answers.

Crock-Pot Dressing

6 cups cornbread

8 slices dried bread

4 eggs

½ onion minced

½ c celery

1 ½ T sage

½ t pepper

2 cans of cream of chicken

20 oz Chicken broth

¼ c butter

Sauté onion and celery (optional: I prefer to sauté my onion, but not the celery) Crumble bread and cornbread, add everything, but the butter. stir well Pour into crock-pot. Dot with butter. Cover and cook on high about two hours or low for four hours.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the next chapter, things start cookin with gas!


	18. Whent he crap hits the fan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're in the last few chapters y'all! This was one of my favorite chapters, I hope ya'll enjoy it also! As always I don't own MacGyver, and thanks to booksfallquietly for looking this over.

Monday dawned just as rainy and nasty as the day before. Stepping into the school Mac had to physically shake himself to get all the rain off. Casi shook her head. “I keep expecting to see cats and dogs at the rate this is going.” She then motioned Mac to step closer. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they call school out early today.”

Mac frowned at her. Why would school be called off for some rain?

Casi shook her head, “I keep forgetting you ain’t from around here. I don’t know if you’ve heard of the saying ‘The good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise’? We have low water crossings that the buses have to go over to pick up kids, so if the water gets up too high the buses can’t get the kids home. That’s where the saying comes from.”

Mac looked out at the parking log which was already waterlogged, “If that’s the case then why haven’t they already called it?”

Casi shrugged, “Who knows, probably want to save the days.” At Mac’s quizzical look she elaborated. “We are allowed to call school off for so many days before we start having to make them up at the end of the school, which is a huge hassle to everybody. So to prevent this, if you go to school till 11:15 that is counted as a full day, and therefore wouldn’t be counted against the days we have stored.”

Mac shook his head, “That’s crazy!”

Casi smiled and spread her arms wide, “Welcome to the school system!” Seeing another car pull up, “That’s my cue; you go ahead with the few kids we do have.”

Mac had noticed that only about half of the usual kids were there, and thought to himself ‘_those are the smart parents they are saving themselves the hassle of having to pick the kids right back up’_. “All right Pre-K, let’s line up.”

They hadn’t even made it halfway across the gym before May, who had bus duty, stopped Mac.

“Thanks for fixing my pencil sharpener the other day.”

Mac smiled, “That was no problem.”

She leaned in and lowered her voice. “So have you heard anything about us going home early?” He shook his head. She sighed, “I feel like I’m always the last to know. Somehow Sena is always the first to know.” She shook her head. “Sometimes I think she has the school bugged.”

She was about to say more when a student came over and started pecking on May, who sighed and turned to give the student her full attention. Mac shook his head and continued their trek to the classroom.

They had almost made it back to the classroom when Jack approached, so Mac had the kids continue into the classroom while he talked with Jack.

Jack looked up and down the hallway before asking, “So have you heard the rumors?”

“About going home early?”

Jack nodded.

“Yes, Jack, I’ve heard the rumors, but right now they are just that, rumors.”

Jack sighed, “Yeah, but if we got to go home early, then most of the teachers will also be going home, and we can then turn this place upside down to try to find our counterfeiters.” Mac nodded, it made a lot of sense. “See if you can stay in the classroom until I let you know, ok?”

Mac agreed, and they parted, going their different ways. Morning announcements, breakfast, and rug time all passed without any announcement about going home. While the kids were playing in centers Casi and Mac were assembling some of the artwork the kids had created. Casi stapled a crab leg into the red- painted plate that was supposed to look like a crab, “I’m so glad we are no longer in the portables. It was always the worst when the weather was like this.”

Mac stopped his stapling of crepe paper tentacles onto his jellyfish. “You used to be in a portable?”

Casi laughed, “Oh yeah when I first started as the Pre-K assistant, we were in a portable classroom across from where the library is. It sucked on the days that is was cold or raining because we were outside.” She shook her head. “Did I ever tell you about the tornado?” She looked at him quizzically and resumed stapling. Mac just shook his head. “So I was bringing the kids over to the car rider line when one of the assistants starts hollerin for me to hurry up. I thought that a kid was gettin checking out early or somethin. Imagine my surprise when I make it into the building and they tell me there is a tornado warning, and we have to take shelter.” She paused to laugh at the memory. “We were packed like sardines into the bathrooms and the small area in front of the big bathrooms. They had even pulled the parents out of the cars to take shelter inside. It was crazy.” Casi was about to say more when the phone rang, she sighed and went to answer it. Mac stayed at the table and kept on stapling.

Casi hung up the phone and made her way quickly back. “I was right, we’re going home early. We’ve got to get to the cafeteria right now for lunch, then they are shutting down. Mac nodded his understanding, and they quickly got the room cleaned up and lined up for lunch.

Maddy raised her hand, “Mr. Mac, aren’t we eattin lunch early?”

She was a perceptive child, he thought, “Yes we are! It’s that cool!”

“Yay!” She shouted. “I was getting hungry! My nana dun wore offt.”

Mac just smiled, he still didn’t understand some of the kids speech. Thankfully she didn’t ask any more questions, and they quickly went to the bathroom so the kids could wash their hands and use the bathroom if they needed it. Kindergarten was just leaving, and Mac noticed the huge grins on all of their faces.

Kim stopped him, “Did you hear the good news? We goin home early!” She eyed him critically. “Have you ever been at a school when the announcement comes over the intercom that they get to go home early?” He shook his head, and she grinned. “Make sure your door is opened so you can hear!”

May piped up from her classroom door which was right across from Kim’s, “You want to guess who told us?”

A little voice called from the hallway interrupting them, “Hey Mrs. Kim, look what I founded.” The little blonde haired boy was twirling a bra around in his hand. Everybody just froze. Mac was rooted where he stood in the hallway. Mrs. Kim was standing beside him stock still, and Mrs. May’s mouth was opened in shock.

“Oh my goodness, Tyler! Please quit that, and bring it to me!” Kim finally managed to get out.

He huffed, “But I founded it outside the bathroom!”

Mac could hear the snickers coming from May’s room. Kim grabbed it out of his hands and sent him to his seat. Her eyes got wide, as she held up some little girl’s bra, Mac decided that was his cue to rejoin Pre-K at the bathroom, rapidly.

After Pre-K finished lunch they were headed down the hallway when the principal got on the intercom. “Good morning Lawrence family, I have some exciting news to share with you. We will be going home at 11:15.”

Mac couldn’t hear anything else she said because of the loud cheering that went up from every classroom. He was pretty sure he heard some adult voices mixed in with the children’s voices. Pre-K turned into a screaming mess. After jumping up and down several of the kids asked why they were happy, Mac sighed and tried to explain that they were getting to leave to go home early, but he didn’t think that they understood.

Getting Pre-K home early was the same routine as usual but sped up. By the time the buses pulled out, Mac felt like he had ran a marathon. Most of the teachers left as soon as the kids did, but a few were still there, getting plans ready for later or just waiting for a gap in the rain so they wouldn’t get so wet.

Upon entering the classroom after getting all the kids loaded Mac fell into the chair beside Casi. Laughing she asked, “You survive?”

“Barely. I think the kids have lost their minds.” Mac shook his head in wonder.

“Yep, that’s how they act when they are all riled up. I’m heading out. I got to take the kids home and check to make sure out dogs have drowned or anything. You staying?” Casi asked as she gathered up her things.

Mac nodded, “I’m going to stay to see if this rain won’t let up for a bit. I hate driving when it’s coming down like this. Do you need me to do something?”

Zipping up her coat, she pointed to a large stack of papers. “Those need to go in the kid’s individual file if you want to do that while you are waiting?” She grabbed her purse and umbrella.

“No problem, consider it done!” Mac agreed easily.

“Thank you, I really appreciate it! See ya tomorrow!” Casi waved and she was gone.

As soon as Casi had left Jack came into the room. “So I figured I’d lay low here until most of the teachers were gone before we started our search.” Jack had plopped himself on one of the tables and was sitting there just swinging his feet. He cocked his head, “You think that you could finish that chat with Marie about the drugs in the county? That could give us a starting point.”

Mac picked up the stack of papers that Casi had asked him to file making his way over to the filing cabinet. “I don’t know Jack. Is she even here today? If she was she might have already taken off like most of the teachers.”

The walkie went off on Jack’s belt “Are there any janitors in the building? There is a small pond forming at the eastern entrance.” Jack sighed, “Well I guess duty calls. I’ll find out if she is here then I’ll call you, ok?” Jack held the walkie staring at Mac waiting for an answer.

Mac sighed, “Fine, I’ll try.”

Jack smiled and raised the walkie to his face, “Yeah, I’m still here, and headed there now with a mop.”

The voice came back over the walkie, “You might want to bring a few of those mops or maybe a bilge pump. I think some ducks are starting to swim in the water, and I saw someone headed that way with a fishing pole.” Jack walked out of the room laughing.

Mac shook his head, Jack had a way of getting under your skin, kind of like a splinter. Oh well, he had a stack of papers to file while he waited for Jack to get back to him. Mac was still sorting the kid’s papers into their file when Bozer’s excited voice came over the comms.

“Guys, we’ve got them! I have the counterfeiters right now on audio. I’m going to patch the audio through to you.” Mac dead stopped, one hand on a file and the other frozen mid air, listening to the voices that came over his comms.

“Why are we still doing this, again? I thought the last time, was actually the last time.” That voice sounded familiar Mac thought.

“You know why we are doing it. Reeves said she’ll have us killed or worse if we don’t do what she says.” Mac knew that voice too.

“But Mel, there has to be a line, if we don’t stand up to her we’ll be doin this the rest of our lives, or until we got caught. We were only going to print a few as a lark, how did it end up like this?” Ok, so the second voice was the substitute Mel’s voice, now who was the other one?

“You know how Marie.” Mac nearly gasped. Marie was the other counterfeiter? He was well and truly shocked.

Marie sighed she sounded on the verge of tears, “I just wanted to have a little bit of money. We get paid so little, and everything is so hard right now.” He heard her sniffle.

Then Mel’s voice responded, “I’m in the same boat, but I’ve also got a son and husband to support too. You’ve only got yourself.”

A sigh, then, “What about if we sabotage the copier? Nothing obvious, but something little, that way we will have an excuse to quit. Plus, I think that there might be FBI or something like that poking around.”

Jack’s voice came over what the girls were saying. “That’s our cue. Bozer where are they at?”

Bozer replied instantly, “They are in the aid’s room.”

Mac asked, “Where do you need me?

Jack replied, “Stay where you’re at for right now.”

“All right, just let me know.”

Jack started giving orders. “Riley, you take the door in your hallway, and I’ll come in the other door. Mac you and Bozer stay where you’re at in case there are more. Bozer, have you seen where Reaves is at?” A second later he added, “Or Office Coltrane? Don’t know if he is in on it, but I would like to have eyes on him too.”

Riley replied first, “Ok, I’m walking.”

Bozer took a few seconds, “I don’t see her on any of the cameras, I think I remember her going into a teacher’s room, but don’t remember if she came out or not. The SRO is currently in the library on his phone.”

“Ok, keep an eye out for her Bozer.”

“Will do.”

Mac couldn’t believe it they had finally gotten the counterfeiters, and it was the last people on earth he thought it would be. Bozer must have shut down the audio, because Mac didn’t hear anything until Jack announced, “I have them in custody, and am going to secure them in the SRO’s office. Keep your head on a swivel; we don’t know where Reaves is.”

Mac resumed filing waiting for Jack to tell him what he needed to do while listening to the updates that Jack was giving every couple of minutes, when the room phone rang. Mac hurried to grab it, thinking it might be Jack with something he needed Mac to do.

“Hey it’s Nick, could you come to the gym lobby, I need some help moving some sports equipment, and none of the janitors are picking up on the radio. I’ve tried other rooms, but I think most everybody else has left. Casi said that you would be staying later.” Mac felt bad about Jack’s not being able to help and quickly agreed. “Sure, I’ll come right over.”

Entering the gym he called out announcing his presence. Nick stuck his head back into the gym from the lobby, “I’m in here! Trying to get this stupid thing into my truck.”

Mac hurried to the lobby, opening the other door he was surprised when Nick swung on him. Thankfully he had the reflexes honed by Jack, the Army, and many missions. He was able to quickly get the upper hand, and with a few well -placed blows knocked him out. But Mac was not prepared for the taser that got him in the neck and knocked him to the ground powerless to stop whatever might happen next. The last thing he saw was Dawn Reaves standing over him and a fist headed straight for his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So did anybody guess who our 'bad guys' were? We'll hear more from them in the next two chapters! Any thoughts?


	19. Where's Mac?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one more chapter to go! As always I don't own MacGyver!

Jack marched Marie and Mel into the SRO’s tiny office, which had only one entrance. There was barely room for the two suspects, much less Jack or Riley. Leaving the two ladies to stew in their own juices he glanced up and down the hallway to see if he could spot Officer Coltrane. Riley left to grab her stuff from the computer lab, and to see if she could spot where Dawn had gone. Jack had turned to walk into the teacher’s lounge when he was hit from behind. Falling into the door he brought up his leg to kick back into his attacker. The attacker let go of Jack and stumbled backward. Jack turned around and wasn’t surprised to find that it was Officer Coltrane.

Jack smiled at the bent-over man, “I would have thought you would be in better shape. It would be embarrassing to have a janitor take you down.”

Coltrane growled, “You ain’t no regular janitor, I bet you’re like FBI or sumthin.”

Jack shrugged, ‘Or something. So you ready to give up, or do I have to do this the hard way. I’ll tell you the truth I hope it’s the hard way, I haven’t gotten to punch anybody lately. So I’m spoiling for a good fight.” Coltrane swung on Jack. “Guess, it’ll be the hard way.” With a sigh, he grabbed the man, kneed him again, and when Coltrane instinctively curled up Jack delivered an uppercut that put him flat out on his back.

Shaking the sting of the hit out of his hand he hit the broadcast button on his comms. “I have Officer Coltrane in custody. Mac, why don’t you start a sweep of the building for Reaves?” While he waited on an answer Jack went through Coltrane’s duty belt and helped himself to the gun and extra clips, he couldn’t find the handcuffs, but he did have flex cuffs, so Jack slapped a pair on his unconscious friend.

When Mac didn’t answer Jack tried again. “Mac, do you copy me?” Still nothing. “Hey Bozer, have you seen Mac?” Jack then dragged Coltrane into the nurse’s empty office and hoisted him into her chair. The guy needed to lay off the doughnuts Jack thought. Finding some medical tape he secured his prisoner a bit better.

“Just a second Jack.” Bozer seemed distracted, but he was probably trying to update Matty and keep an eye on the videos. “The last time I have him on video he was heading into the gym. You might want to check the gym lobby, I’m not sure, but it kind of looks like someone’s foot is on the floor.”

Riley made it back to Jack by then, “Hey Rils, you keep an eye on these three, I’m going to see if I can find Mac.” He didn’t wait for an answer; instead, he took off out the front door at a sprint. He could see a figure lying in the gym lobby as he approached, but it didn’t look to be Mac. He quickly unlocked the front door and looked around. Nick the gym teacher was unconscious on the floor, but besides for that nothing looked out of place. As Jack looked around trying to figure out what happened Bozer came back over the comms, “I think Reaves has Mac. I rewound the footage from the gym lobby, I’m sending it to your phones.” Jack’s phone pinged with an incoming message. He pulled up the file and watched it.

In the picture he could see Nick lunging after somebody, and then him getting hit, with what looked to be Mac’s fists. He watches as Nick fell down and then didn’t get up. Then just at the edge of the frame blonde hair appeared on the floor, and then was gone. A few minutes later he sees someone who could be Reaves carrying Mac out, well Jack can’t see the person’s face, but he would know that blonde hair anywhere, putting him in her trunk, then taking off. Back on the comms, Jack asked Bozer, “Is there any way to trace where she is going?”

“I don’t think so man, not unless we issue a BOLO and get lucky.” Bozer sighed. “I’m sure Mac’s gonna be ok.” He sounded like he was reassuring himself just as much as he was trying to reassure Jack.

Jack felt the needed to do something, so he snatched up a jump rope, and hogtied Nick. He then headed back to the office intending to beat some information out of the corrupt cop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mac gradually woke up with his head throbbing. He could feel his hands bound behind him. The chair he was sitting in was padded; it felt like one of the team chairs from the Lawrence Gym. The more he woke up, the more he was convinced that it was indeed one of the school’s chairs. He tried to pull his hands around and heard the jingle of metal, and cold metal bit into his wrists, so he figured that he was handcuffed. Now to figure out where he was. He gradually opened his eyes, after blinking a few times to bring his surroundings into focus Mac saw that he was sitting in the middle of what looked like an old barn. There was still hay in the loft and decrepit horse stalls along the left side- wall. He could make out a figure outside the barn pacing on the phone. Mac figured that it was Dawn Reaves since that was the last face he remembered seeing after being taken down by a taser, again. He wished the bad guys would quick tasering him in the neck. Was there a sign on his neck that said place taser here? He tried not to shiver in the cold dampness of the open barn.

Mac sighed; it was not like this was his first time getting kidnapped, so he might as well get started on rescuing himself. He had taken to placing paperclips all over his person including his arm sleeves, and the back of his pants. But his over shirt had been taken off, and he was having a hard time getting to the one on his pants because the back of the seat was padded. He almost had it when Dawn walked back into the barn so he stilled his movements. She looked furious, her face was red and her fists were clenched. Mac figured that if he could distract her then all that needed to be done was stand up and bring the chair down on her head, then he could have all the time he needed to pick the lock on the handcuffs. But that plan was thwarted when the first thing she did when she noticed he was awake was to punch him in the temple again. Dang, she can punch was his last cognoscente thought before he went to that grey area where you weren’t quite awake, but not quite unconscious either. Mac could feel her bind his feet, and then he got another hit sending him deeper into that grey area.

~~~~~~~~~~

Jack quickly made it back to where they were holding everybody. Riley was pacing the hallway. Jack frowned at her, “Why aren’t you on your laptop bibbity-booping something to make it show us where Mac’s at?”

Riley rolled her eyes, “If I could don’t you think I would be doing it right now?” She looked ready to snap.

Jack felt bad as soon as it had left his mouth. He opened his arms for a hug, which Riley quickly walked into, “Sorry” he murmured into her hair.

Stepping back she nodded, “I understand, it’s driving me crazy, too. Maybe we can get Officer Dumbass in there to tell us where Reaves might be.”

“If he doesn’t he’s gonna wish he hadn’t been born.” Jack was ready to do some hitting to get his boy back. “Have you heard anything from our other guests?” He nodded his head indicating the aforementioned Officer’s office.

Riley shook her head, “Every once in a while I’ll hear a murmur or some sniffles, but that’s about it.”

Jack nodded, he figured that they were only pawns being used by Dawn Reaves and her cronies, but he had been wrong before. He stepped into the nurse’s office to start his interrogation, but was hindered by the fact that the one getting interrogated was unconscious. Jack slapped his cheeks a few times trying to walk him up, but nothing happened. Growling he was impatient with the lack of progress. “Riley, see if you can’t get him awake, and I’m going to go talk to our other friends. Introduce them to the real Jack Dalton.” He didn’t wait for Riley to give him the go- ahead. He strode into the cramped office holding the two terrified ladies. Mel had tear tracks running down her face, and Marie looked miserable. He wanted to feel sorry for them, but just couldn’t, not with Mac missing.

He found a folding chair and turned it around so that he could straddle it looking at the two ladies. “So your Mrs. Reaves has taken a very good friend of mine. I want to know where she’s at.” He was straight forward and didn’t beat around the bush, he also put a commanding tone to his question. Both the ladies started talking at the same time. Jack held up his hand, and they both stopped. “One at a time please.”

Mel started, “Look we don’t know anything.”

Jack cut her off with a look, “Lady, I didn’t ask what you knew; I asked where Mac was at.”

Marie gasped, “Mac? Pre-K Mac? He’s the one that got kidnapped?” Jack just nodded his head. Marie started babbling, “I swear, we don’t know! We didn’t even want to do this!” She once more dissolved into tears.

Mel put an arm over the younger lady, who leaned into her embrace. “Since being a sub pays jack squat, we got the bright idea to see if we could copy money on the brand new super copier, imagine our surprise when it worked.” She laughed a hollow laugh and shook her head. “After the first test was successful we tweaked it so that it worked better. Then we would only make a couple of twenties, and make change whenever we subbed and had to take up money, and only at school.” She stopped and took a breath. “Then Mrs. Reaves caught us. We thought we were dead meat, but she decided to blackmail us instead.”

Marie wiped her face free of her tears and took up the narrative. “Where we had been printing a couple of twenties here and there, she wanted us to do a massive amount. She would never tell us why, but I think that she is working with the like the mafia or a cartel or something like that.” She stopped for a second and shook her head as silent tears coursed down her face.. “We tried to quit, but she said that she would press charges, and Mel would never see her family again. I told her I wasn’t scared of the law, so she threatened our families’ lives. We didn’t want to risk them, so we just went along with it.” Marie stopped and looked down at her hands. “We’re very sorry, and if I knew where Mac was I’d tell you in a heartbeat, he’s so nice and the kids just love him.” She snorted a laugh roughly swiping the tears off her cheek, “I think they like him better than me, and I’ve been with them off and on through the whole year.”

Jack nodded, he could tell they were telling the truth, that they had just got caught up in something far bigger than them. “Ok….”

Riley poked her head in, “Our friend just woke up.” She then disappeared again.

Jack got up, “Sit tight ladies.” And he was out the door,

Coltrane was looking groggy but awake when Jack walked in. This time he chose to stand and make Coltrane look up at him.

“Where is Reaves at?” Jack asked right off the bat.

Coltrane let out an ugly laugh, “Like I would tell you.”

Jack leaned in invading his personal space, “Oh, you will tell me or you will be in for a world of hurt.”

Coltrane shook his head, “You in over your head, boy.” He said it with such venom. “You don’t know who you’re messing with.”

“There, there little girl,” Jack said placatingly.

Coltrane enraged tried to get up, but just flopped like a fish instead, which amused Jack to no end. He was about to ask another question when he saw Marie try to sneak by. Jack motioned to Riley to keep going on the interrogation, and he slipped out to see where Marie was slinking off to. He hoped she wasn’t running, his gut was telling him she wasn’t, but if she wasn’t running then what was she up to? He followed her to Sena’s room where she slipped in the back door. He went to the next classroom down remembering that the two rooms were joined at the back, so he would be able to hear what they said.

Creeping as close to the classroom as he dared he crouched by the classroom bathroom and listened. “So I need a favor,” Marie asked hesitantly

“Shoot.” Was the reply she got.

“So some stuff has gone down, and I need to be able to find Mrs. Reaves. She’s involved in some shady stuff, that’s about all I can tell you right now.” There was silence for a while before the reply came.

“Are you sure you can’t tell me what’s going on?”

Marie sighed, “Not right now, it’s huge and the police are involved.”

Jack could hear the creak of Sena’s chair, and a sigh then “All right. So she probably won’t be at any of her usual spots.” There was another period of silence. “I think I remember an old barn out on her uncle’s property that she said she liked to go shooting at. If I was tryin to get away from people that’s where I would head.”

“Thanks, Sena! Could you give me some directions?”

Jack could hear the rustling of paper, then “Thanks Sena, you might just have literally saved someone’s life tonight.” Then Jack heard the door close so Jack hurried to catch Marie before she got too far.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Jack demanded grabbing her attention.

Marie let out a shriek that drew Sena’s attention. Sena stuck her head out of her door, looking at the two quizzically.

“Sorry, Jack here just scared me.” Marie gave a tepid smile. Sena nodded and closed her door. Turning to Jack Marie held up the paper with the directions on it. “I may have found out where Mrs. Reaves is holding Mac at.”

Jack attempted to take the paper Marie was holding up. “I’ll take that.”

Marie snatched it out of his grasp. “No! I started the mess, plus I know the roads much better than you do. You’ll need that especially in this weather.” The rain had lightened up some but was still coming down pretty hard.

Jack debated for a few seconds, “Fine you can come with, but you better give amazing directions, and you will not get in the way! Do you understand?”

Marie nodded her head vigorously. Jack tapped his comms, “I might have a lead on Mac. Marie is coming with me to check it out. We’ll be in contact via comms. Riley, keep at Coltrane and let me know if you get anything I can use.” Both Riley and Bozer replied that they understood.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mac’s head was beginning to finally clear again. The left side of his face was throbbing in time with his heartbeat, and his eye was starting to swell shut, but if that’s all the damage he came out of this with then he would be a happy camper. Blinking a few times to try to clear his vision, he could make out Dawn on the phone again out in the rain. As if sensing him watching her she turned around, dropped the phone from her ear, and stalked back into the barn where he was being held. Anger was still radiating from every pore.

She calmly set her cell phone on one of the stalls and picked up a large Bowie style knife. Unbidden Mac’s brain supplied the origins of the Bowie knife, it was crafted by James Black for Jim Bowie who made it famous during…”

Dawn interrupted Mac’s internal monologue, “Do you know the trouble that you and your FBI or TBI or whatever BI friends have gotten me into?” She punched him in the face to emphasize her point and then continued her rant. “When I first started teaching the kids used to respect me, call me Mrs. Reaves, and behave, but now.” She stopped her pacing in front of Mac and squatted down in front of him. “Do you know what I do all day? I handle problem kids! I take phone calls from parents who are whining that little Suzy didn’t get the attention she deserves. I have to stand there and help kids who have pissed their pants change, every day! Every Single Day! Who pees their pants every day? It’s like these kids now just don’t care!” She repeated herself yelling it this time, “Every day!” She stood up and resumed her pacing. Mac’s head hurt enough, so he didn’t even try to keep up with her strides.

“So.” She enunciated and then did a little flip of the knife. “I made a new friend, a very connected new friend. One who happened to be in bed with a cartel.” She stopped, giggled, and said, “And well me! Then I stumbled upon two imbeciles trying to counterfeit money. Then it hit me!” As she talked she was gesturing wildly. Mac figured that she was so deep into her ‘evil monologue’ as Jack would call it, that she wouldn’t notice him trying to get his paperclip.

“I could blackmail the idiots, clean the cartel’s money, and finally save enough to get away from this hellhole, and that cheating bastard!” She whipped around looking at Mac who held still, “You wouldn’t cheat on your wife would you?”

She didn’t say anything else, obviously waiting for an answer. “No?” The answer came out like a question.

She nodded, “Good. So where was I?” She paced for a few more seconds, “Oh yeah, I almost had enough saved when you pesky kids showed up.” Mac had to stifle a laugh; Jack would love being called a kid.

She slowly walked back to Mac and stood still in front of him. “So I enacted plan B, sell the feds to the cartel.” That sent a cold stab of fear through Mac. She grinned, Seeming to be able to read Mac’s expressions. “The Merida cartel only seemed to be interested in one person, you!” Mac tried not to let his relief show, he knew they were more or less off the playing field, and wouldn’t be able to pay the 4 million dollar bounty they had placed on his head.

“But” she continued, “They have seemed to have run into a snag or something, I’m waiting on a call back for verification. In the meantime, they said I could be…” She paused trying to think of the right word. “Creative.” With that, the large knife sliced down and was plunged in Mac’s right thigh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jack led Marie to his SUV. He got into the driver’s seat, while Marie rode shotgun. Jack was worried about his boy; he didn’t know how much violence Reaves was capable of. And the missions where Mac had come out less than ok, kept circling through his head. He realized that Marie was talking to him in a quiet voice.

“Speak up.” He roughly barked out.

“Sorry, I don’t know how to express how freaking sorry I am. I…”

Jack cut her off. “Then do something about it, give me the freaking directions, and let me rescue my best friend and we’ll be square. Capeesh?”

“Yeah, I understand, you’ll want to take the next right up here. It’s kinda twisty, and a gravel road so you might want to slow down. “

Jack growled in his throat, not wanting to waste any time getting to Mac. Marie commented, “Yeah, I know it sucks, but would you rather we wreck, and have to be rescued too?”

Dang, it! Jack hated it when other people made sense, so when he turned onto the road he slowed his speed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mac bit his lip hard not to let out a scream of pain. If he thought it hurt going it, it hurt twice as much coming out. He went limp in his bonds, blackness threatening to overtake him, but he battled it back scared of what might happen to him if he was unconscious. He could see Dawn’s lips moving but had no clue what they lunatic was saying as he was using all of his body’s resources just staying upright and awake.

He started hearing this shrill chirping sound and thought that the little birdies Jack always talked about had finally arrived to start circling his head. But when Dawn crossed to her cell phone, his foggy brain told him that it was just the cell phone. He took as a deep breath as he could, to calm down his racing heart. He studied the wound, but all he could process was the pain and bleeding. He knew he was panicking, and nothing good ever came from panic. The voice of his training officer Pena came to him, “Identify what can kill you now, and what can kill you later.” Ok, using that reasoning, Dawn could kill him now, and the stab wound could kill him later. Stuffing the pain in a box, he turned his attention to Dawn, who was on her phone again pacing in the rain. Judging from her glares at him and her furious pace, she was not happy. He would even say she was enraged. She came stomping back into the barn, dripping wet, and as furious as he had seen her. She chunked the phone on the floor and got right up in his face.

“What did you do!” She practically screamed at him. Hitting him again, “What did you do?” She started her pacing in front of him again, and he slowly blinked his eyes, well his eye, the left one was swollen shut now, with the repeated blows. Finally getting her into focus he decided to channel his inner Jack Dalton.

“I didn’t do anything.” It came out weaker than he had anticipated, but it seemed to do the trick of getting her attention.

“I could have had 4 million dollars!” She emphasized the million part. “But you and your little fed friends wiped the cash out!” She got right back in his face again. “You’re gonna know the pain you have caused me.” With than she rammed the blade into his lower right side.

Mac couldn’t hold in the pain this time and let out a scream. He screamed again when she pulled it back out. She stood there watching him bleed with his blood dripping off the knife that she casually held in her hand. The pain threatened to consume him again. The logical part of his brain was thankfully still operating and was telling him to control his breathing if he wanted to stay conscious When he more or less pulled himself together he focused his eye on Dawn. She looked a lot calmer now, like she had made a decision, and judging by the smile on her face it was one he wouldn’t like.

As if reading his thoughts she started talking again, picking up right where she had left off earlier. “So they offered me a deal. If I can bring in your head on a pike, they will get me set up in Mexico, where I don’t have to take care of whiny brats anymore. They didn’t specify whether or not you needed to be alive or even in one piece.” She looked him taking in her handy work he assumed. The left side of his face was battered, and swollen, the wound on his right thigh was sluggishly leaking blood, he didn’t think she had hit anything vital with that one. But the one on his side was another matter there were all sorts of important organs, and he was worried that she may have nicked his large intestines or even his spleen. He didn’t feel weak from blood loss yet. Then in his head, he chuckled, how sad was it that he knew from experience what massive blood loss felt like. Maybe he had earned that free kidney now. He realized his thoughts were drifting and struggled to bring them back. Focusing on Dawn still standing in front of him, he gave her as a defiant look as he could muster.

“Oh, hun.” Then she stabbed him underneath his left clavicle. He again screamed in pain, and finally succumbed to the unconsciousness that had been hovering on the edges. He wasn’t awake to see Dawn shrug, grab her phone, and place another phone call, leaving the huge knife sticking out of his shoulder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jack made another right and peered out through the windshield. “Are you sure this is the right road?”

Marie looked around and consulted her map, “Yes.” At least she sounded confident. “This dirt road should lead to the path that will take us to the back of the barn. So we should almost be there.” They traveled only a little further when Jack spotted the overgrown path. Slowing he pulled onto it . Cresting the hill he could see a barn up ahead, so he doused the headlights. He slowly pulled as close as he dared to the structure that had seen better days. He stopped the SUV and put it into park. Turning to Marie he gave her strict orders, “You are to stay in this car until I say you can come out.” He looked at her quizzically, “Do you have any medical knowledge?”

She nodded vigorously, “I completed my first responders’ course back in high school.” Jack sighed, it was better than nothing. Reaching back he pulled the massive first aid kit that he liked to have with him on missions, and handed her his knife. “When I say you can, go straight to Mac, and see if he needs first aid, and if he is bound, unbind him, ok?”

Marie nodded and grabbed the kit and the knife. Jack checked his borrowed gun and grabbed his own out of the glove box, his tactical flashlight, and another pair of flex cuffs he had taken off Officer Assbutt. Lastly, he tried his comms. “Bozer, do you read me?” When he got no answer he sighed and sent a brief text on his sat phone. He had just opened his door when he heard Mac’s scream of pain. He wanted to run at the sound, but his tactical training overrode his helicopter parent instincts. He crouched behind the car that Reaves had driven out here and watched her walk in the opposite direction, leaving Mac unguarded. Standing up he motioned Marie to come to him, he was happy to see that she was being as quiet as he was.

“I’m going in to take her down, you go for Mac. Nod if you understand.” She gave one short nod, and he was gone. He took shelter behind the chair that Mac was restrained in. Noticing that Mac’s hands were handcuffed, Jack grabbed the paperclip off the back of Mac’s pants, and quickly picked the lock. When Mac’s hands were free, he didn’t move them, which concerned Jack. He whispered hoping Mac could hear him, “Your rescue is here. Hang tight, and we’ll have you out of here in two shakes.” Still not getting an answer he took a brief look at his partner, it broke his heart, seeing all that blood, and was that a knife sticking out of his shoulder? But he put it where he put all other thoughts when on a mission, in a box. And as quick as an arrow he went after Dawn Reaves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See ya'll Sunday!


	20. A world of hurt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe this is the last chapter! I have toughly enjoyed sharing my little tale with y'all and hope each one of you have enjoyed it as well! I appreciated each and every review and kudos they brought smiles to my face. As always I don't own MacGyver!

Mac was pretty sure he had heard Jack’s voice, his world was awash in agony, but he was sure that he had heard his partner. Opening his eye proved to be harder than he expected it to be, but he succeeded. It took a second for his brain to process what exactly he was seeing. Jack was attacking Dawn, a wave of relief overtook him and he almost slipped out of the chair. That was when he realized that his hands were unbound. He didn’t want to move his left arm much because of the knife sticking out of his shoulder. He was just about to try to move when he felt someone behind him.

Marie popped up beside him, almost startling him, it was only years of training and living with Bozer that kept him from jerking. When she saw what all had happened to him tears welled up in her eyes, “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. It’ll all my fault!”

Mac didn’t have time for her to panic so he gathered his energy, “Marie, it’s ok, but I need some help. Can you help me?” His voice sounded weak even to his ears, but it seemed to calm her down. Just then Jack joined them with a big smile on his face. “Another one bites the dust.”

Marie looked horrified, and Jack clarified, “No, I didn’t kill her, wanted to though.” He shrugged. “She’s just knocked out and restrained.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jack squatted down and undid the belt that was holding Mac’s legs together. While Marie unzipped the medkit, when Jack was done he stepped back and watched Marie grab the supplies they would need. Seeing as she and Mac had this under control he decided to call Matty and get Mac a medivac because it looked like he had more blood on the outside rather than the inside. Grabbing his sat phone again he stepped away while he keyed in.

“Webber.”

“Hey, it’s Dalton. I’ve got Mac. He’s bleeding pretty bad from some stab wounds. We’re going to need a medivac.”

While Jack talked he watched Mac direct Marie to the quick clot bandages for his leg and stomach.

“Have you looked at the weather there lately?” Matty’s voice brought him back to their conversation.

He frowned and looked outside where Dawn, still unconscious, was getting rained on. “Yea, I’m lookin at it now.”

Jack heard a sigh from the other end. “Another front is coming in, I don’t think I’d be able to get a helicopter to you before the front hits.”

Jack was starting to get mad, his best friend in the world was sitting there bleeding, possibly to death, and Matty wouldn’t send a medivac to them. “I could fly in this weather!”

Another sigh, “Not everybody is you, Dalton.” I’m really..” Jack didn’t wait for her to finish he just hung up in frustration. He turned around and almost ran into Marie.

“I can get us to a hospital pretty quickly.” Was the first words out of her mouth. Jack narrowed his eyes at her. “I overheard your conversation with whom I’m guessing is your boss?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “The hospital isn’t too far if you know the back roads, and I do. It’s just over yonder.” She pointed in a direction, but Jack wasn’t paying attention. His attention was focused on his young charge who was barely conscious with two knife wounds and a huge ass knife sticking out of his shoulder.

Jack nodded at Marie and walked back over to Mac. He squatted down so that he would be eye level with his young friend. “Hey Mac, so good news, no helicopter ride, bad news, we’re driving to the hospital.”

Mac nodded tiredly, “I thought that might be the case.” Jack thought he looked truly awful, but it wasn’t the worst he had seen him.

“So what we are going to do to make it easier on you, is Marie’s gonna pull my SUV around and back it as close to you as possible, then you and I are climbing in the backseat and are going to sit back, relax, and enjoy our youtuber ride.”

That got a weak chuckle from Mac. “It’s Uber and you know it.” Jack shrugged and motioned for Marie to go get the vehicle. Mac licked his dry lips, “What are you going to do with Dawn?”

Jack rolled his eyes, of course, Mac would worry about the person who had just stabbed him three times, and made one side of his face look like he was an extra in a Mel Gibson movie. “I suppose I should drag her back under here so she doesn’t drown, then I’ll let Matty know where to pick the garbage up at. Think you’ll be ok while I go do that?”

Mac nodded, and Jack took a second to look him over again. His boy looked like Hell. The left side of his face was all swollen, red, and starting to bruise, by tomorrow it would all be black, purple, and even nastier looking. Mac was holding his left arm still as not to aggravate the knife buried in his shoulder while his left hand applied pressure to the wound on this right flank on top of the quick clot bandage, which thankfully seemed to be doing its job.. The last stab wound on his leg hadn’t bleed as much as the one on the side had, so Jack hoped it would be more superficial, and the bandage that Marie had applied was holding well. He broke off his examination and went to go retrieve Reaves’ unconscious body.

By the time he had dragged her body back into the barn and threw her in some old smelly hay, Marie had the SUV backed up beside Mac, and the rear passenger door was open. Jack went around grabbed the first aid kit and pitched it in the back, then climbed in the backseat. He sat there on the edge to direct Marie and Mac. “Alright Mac, I ain’t gonna lie, this is gonna suck, hard.” Mac nodded in understanding. “Did you take some of the pain meds?” Jack hoped he had and that’s what was making him drowsy, and not blood loss.

Marie answered, “Yeah, I made sure he got that auto morphine thing as soon as I found it.”

Jack nodded in approval, “Good job. Ok, you’re gonna have to help him stand, then brace him. Mac, once you’re standing, you only have one step, use your good leg, and I’ll pull you the rest of the way in ok?” Mac nodded. “The last question, do you want to lay down or sit up?”

“Down, cold” The short answer, told Jack a lot. Mac would only lay down if he was dizzy, so the blood loss must be getting worse, despite the bandages. “On three. One, Two, Three.” Mac pushed with his good arm and leg to a standing position. Then Marie slipped her shoulder under Mac’s right shoulder and took his weight. After the promised step they were at the car. Marie took Mac’s weight as he put his good leg on the running board and Jack hauled him in the Tahoe. As soon as Jack had taken Mac’s Marie slipped out from under him and went running around to the driver’s seat. She jumped into the driver’s seat, and they were away with a rooster’s tail of dirt kicked up behind them.

Marie drove like she was auditioning for NASCAR. The ride back gave Jack a chance to update Riley and Bozer on what was going on, and he was in turn informed that Matty had sent reinforcements. Upon their speedy arrival at Polk Hospital, a group of staff members were already waiting for them with a gurney, and they quickly rushed Mac back for treatment. Marie parked the SUV, and Jack led her into the hospital where they were shown a room in which to wait. Jack wasn’t about to let Marie out of his custody. Shortly after their arrival Bozer and Riley joined them to wait for news of Mac’s condition.

Riley and Bozer passed the time on their phones; Jack kept glancing at his phone wondering what was taking so long. Marie sat by herself in the far corner staring at the doorway looking lost. Jack had thought about going over there and letting her know she did a good job, but he was still mad at her part in this whole fiasco, so he let her sit there and contemplate what would happen to her. Finally after what, to Jack, seemed like eons, but was more like a couple of hours; Mac was rolled into the room in a hospital bed accompanied by a doctor.

The doctor introduced himself to the team, “Hi, I’m Dr. Burns. I was Mr. MacGyver’s physician today. He is currently under light sedation, but it should wear off soon. He might be in some pain upon waking, but we hope to keep on top of that with adequate pain management.”

Jack laughed internally at the thought of Mac willingly taking pain meds. The kid hated all medicine, especially any medicine that altered him. The doctor continued, “He presented with two open stab wounds, and a third with the knife still in.” Bozer gasped at the mention that the knife was still in Mac, the doctor continued. “The wound in his side miraculously didn’t hit anything vital, but there were a lot of blood vessels in that area which led to excessive bleeding.” He looked up from his notes. “Whoever applied the quick clot most likely saved his life, he could have easily bled out from that particular wound.” He then went back to looking at the chart. “We will be keeping an eye on it for signs of internal bleeding. The wound on his leg was only muscle damage and should heal nicely with some physical therapy. The shoulder wound just missed the top of the lung.” Again Dr. Burns looked up. “Whoever decided to leave the knife in, again saved his life. The knife had nicked his left subclavian artery. So if it had been removed….” He sighed and rubbed his face losing some of his haughty professional demeanor, becoming more sincere “If that knife had been removed, I don’t believe that Mr. MacGyver would be with us right now as the blood loss between two of the stab wounds would have been catastrophic.” He consulted his clipboard and regained the professional mask. “The shoulder wound should also heal up nicely with some physical therapy. We have him on a nasal cannula for supportive oxygen only. The damage around his eye is mostly superficial, but we took an x-ray just to make sure there were no underlying breaks. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask a nurse.” With that the doctor quickly left, leaving the team to gather around their unconscious friend.

Jack looked at his friend’s unnaturally still body hooked to two IV’s one with blood, the other was a regular IV, a heart monitor, and the blood pressure cuff. From years of sitting beside Mac’s bed as he recuperated Jack had gotten good at reading Mac’s vitals and knowing if they were good or not. Right now his blood pressure was still a little low, and his pulse just a bit too fast. They had put Mac’s arm in a sling, and Jack could see the bandage peeking out from on top of the sheet covering his friend. Mac’s face looked worse. The bruises that were just beginning to form at the barn had turned black and purple. Jack shook his head the boy was going to be sporting that shiner for a while.

Bozer asked the question the rest of the team hadn’t, “So, who gets to call Matty and update her?” Jack just shot Bozer a look, “Guess that means that I’m doing it.” With a sigh, Bozer stepped out of the room to perform task..

Riley moved to stand closer to Jack, “You know we’ve been at this for several years now, but it still hurts to see any of us in the hospital, most of all Mac.”

Jack draped his arm around her and pulled her in tight, “Your right, that is one thing that never gets easier.” He released her and looked over to where their guest sat. He had forgotten her with Mac coming in. She was looking at the hospital bed with silent tears streaking down her face. Dang it, he was going to have to talk to Matty about making sure that whatever happened to Marie wasn’t too bad. He was pretty sure she was being punished enough with seeing the condition Mac was in, plus she had helped save Mac’s life, and that held real weight in his book. He indicated to Riley to stay and he went out to make his phone call.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Mac finally rejoined the land of the living at first he just kept his eyes closed not wanting to acknowledge where he was or how he had gotten there. But something annoying his nose, which led him to realize that he was in a hospital, and the whole stabbing incident came back to him. He could feel his other tethers; the blood pressure cuff, the pull if an IV needle, and the sticky pads on his chest for the heart monitor. Mac tried to open both eyes, but the one on the left wouldn’t open. Mac could see Jack napping in a wheelchair with his feet propped on his hospital bed, and Riley was hunched over her laptop typing away in a chair on the other side of the bed. He reached up to his face to pull the annoying nasal cannula away, but even that small movement sent ripples of pain through his body, and Jack was up and beside him in a flash.

“Hey, Bud! It’s good to see those baby blues, I was starting to think you were going to sleep through supper.” Mac frowned trying to make sense of Jack’s words. With a glance at the window, he noticed that it was fully dark outside. Riley grabbed the hospital thermos sitting on the rolling tray and let him have a drink, which felt heavenly going down his parched throat.

“Hey Jack, can you,” Mac asked waving his hand at his face. Jack rolled his eyes, but he unhooked the nasal cannula and raised the bed. Mac gave him a tired smile, “Thanks, man. So what’s happening, and when can I get out of here?”

Riley growled and handed Jack a $20. Jack laughed pocketing the money. Mac just sent him a look. “What? It gets boring sitting here watching you sleep. Anyways, Matty sent in a tac team to round up all the players and turn them over to the Secret Service. It turns out that gym teacher Nick was actually Reaves’s cousin and in on the whole thing. That’s why he attacked you. As for going home…They want to keep you overnight to make sure there is no internal bleeding, and to make sure your blood volume is back up. You received two units of blood after sugary, but I think after that as long as you can get around on a crutch you should be good to go back to the Phoenix.” Mac nodded trying to absorb all the information. He realized that he hadn’t mentioned Marie or Mel.

“What about Marie? I remember her helping us out in that barn” He unconsciously gave a shutter which sent a jolt of pain through his body.

Riley announced, “I’m going to go get a nurse, cause you need some more pain meds.” She sent him the zip it look and disappeared out the door.

“So I called Matty and told her how helpful Marie had been, but she hasn’t told me what will happen to her. About an hour ago Grant came and got her.” Grant was another agent, and a good friend of Jack’s.

Riley stepped back into the room with a nurse on her heels. “Hi Mr. MacGyver, I’m Suzanne and I’ll be your nurse tonight. I can see your vitals have improved since you got another unit of blood in you. What would you rate your pain on a scale of one to ten? One being none and ten being the worst pain imaginable.”

Mac frowned, “A four?”

Both Riley and Jack shook their heads. Suzanne gave Mac a hard look. “Young man, I’ve been nursing since before you were born, I can tell when I am being lied too. Now truthfully how bad is it hurting?”

Mac sighed hating that this new nurse had his number so easily. “Maybe an eight or so?”

She nodded her head accepting the answer. “Now that’s a good boy! I’m going to give you some pain meds that will probably help you sleep throughout the night.” She glared at him to head off any protests, which frankly he wasn’t up too quite yet. With that, she took the cap off of a syringe in her pocketed and injected the contents into his IV. “You should be feeling that pretty soon.”

Mac nodded, already feeling the warmth flooding his veins. He hated that he had to ask the next question. “Can someone help me to the bathroom real quick?”

Suzanne gave a hearty laugh. “Sorry sweety, just be glad that we took the catheter out while you were still sedated.” With that, she grabbed the portable urinal and set it on his bed for him. “Maybe after physical therapy visits you tomorrow you can get out of bed. If you need anything just push the red button.” With that, she gave a cheery smile and exited the room.

Riley was grinning, but Jack burst out laughing, “Wow, she sure has your number!”

Mac saw the nod that Jack gave Riley and she slipped from the room closing the door to give them privacy. He knew that Jack probably had some big speech to convince him to let Jack help, but he was too tired and decided just to cut to the chase. “Can you help me with that? I’m not sure I can manage it on my own.”

Jack pretended to be shocked, “Are you, Angus MacGyver asking for help?” Jack didn’t wait for a reply instead picked up the urinal, and Mac’s relief did most of the hard work of getting things out of the way. Even that little movement pulled on the stitches in his side and zapped what little energy he had, and he was soon asleep before Jack could rearrange his blankets.

******

The next morning Mac opened his eyes, well just the right one, because the left one was still swollen shut, but he thought he could see some light at the very bottom. He figured in the cocktail of drugs he was undoubtedly getting was an anti-inflammatory that was helping with the swelling. He sighed, he hated the feeling of being high on pain killers, it made being able to control anything doubly hard, but he realized that he didn’t feel like he was loopy or anything. He didn’t hurt, but he also didn’t feel high, huh. Looking around the room he spotted Riley in the wheelchair that Jack had been dozing in yesterday. She, like Jack, had her feet propped on his hospital bed. He also spied a breakfast tray on his table, so it must be later in the morning. He was still tethered to all the same monitoring equipment, and the bed was at the same incline as last night.”

“Good morning, sleepyhead.” Riley greeted him.

He turned his head so he could see her better. “Hey yourself. Where is everybody?” His voice sounded stronger, and not so raspy he thought.

“What? Aren’t you glad to see me?” Riley laughed acting hurt. “Jack stayed overnight so he went back to the house to get a shower and pack everything up, and Bozer’s there with him. As soon as you get sprung from this popsicle stand and they get the house packed up, we’ll be ready to fly back to LA.”

Mac blinked, “That’s going to be so weird for a bit, not going to work at the school with the kids, I’m going to miss them. Especially Benny, I’m really going to miss him. Did I tell you that he curls up in my lap most mornings?” Mac sighed

Riley had opened her mouth to say something when Nurse Suzanne walked in. “Good to see you awake this morning Mr. MacGyver. You slept through all your vital checks last night, which I think did you a world of good. You look a lot more with it.” She wrote down all this vital and looked at the tray of untouched food. “You should eat some of that, it isn’t too bad. And our most important question, what is your pain level?”

“I only just woke up a few minutes ago, and right now it’s not too bad, maybe a four? But I haven’t tried to move or anything.” Suzanne nodded and jotted something down.

“So your friend who was here last night said you hated that drugged feeling, so I compromised with him on a lower dose, with a few helpers. But since physical therapy will be here in a few hours, I’m going to give you an extra boost, because trust me you’ll want it.”

Mac nodded, remembering all the other wonderful pain-filled hours he had spent with PT before, yes, he definitely wanted it.

Suzanne smiled at him and injected the pain killer into his IV. “So it’s about to be shift change, I’ll come in and introduce your day shift nurse before I leave.” She turned to leave, stopped and turned around, “Please if you can go easy on Marie. She’s a good girl that made some really bad decisions.”

With that, she left. Riley looked at Mac quizzically, “But how did she know?”

Mac was about to shrug, thought of his arm and didn’t, “Small towns, Riley. Everybody knows everybody around here.” Riley then helped him maneuver the tray so he could eat a little and Suzanne was right, the food wasn’t half bad.

About thirty minutes later Suzanne came back in to introduce her replacement Nurse Jennifer. The new nurse was blonde, in her mid- thirties, and had that same no non-sense attitude that all nurses seem to have. Shortly after her introduction Nurse Jennifer was back rolling a med cart.

“You can call me Jen if you want.” She offered a smile, which made her seem years younger.

“Mac.”

“Nice you meet you Mac,” She turned to Riley who was texting an update to Jack and Bozer. “If you want to go take a break or get a bite to eat now’s a great time to do it.” Riley got the hint and quickly left the room.

“Have you used the bathroom yet this morning?” Jen asked kindly.

Mac felt himself blush slightly and mumbled a no.

“That’s fine. What we are going to do is, I’m going to help you use the urinal, then we are going to change those bandages, and hopefully, take some of those pesky monitors away. I understand you hope to be released today.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She smiled at him, “Cute, and with manners, too bad I’m married with three kids.” She easily helped him with the urinal, and then pulled the covers and his gown to the middle so she could get to the wounds on the right. When she uncovered the stab wound on his side, it didn’t look like much. The bandage she pulled off was stained with blood, but from past experience, he knew that was to be expected. She spread some ointment on the wound gently and carefully replaced the dressing. She repeated it with the other two wounds. She wrote down his vitals again. “So I am pleased to announce that we can indeed take the heart monitor and BP cuff off, your vitals have been steady since last night, and look good.”

He smiled in relief, “What about the IV?” All that hung on the pole was a clear bag and whatever drugs they were giving him.

She consulted his chart. “We want you to finish the antibiotics in there right now, and one more dose of pain meds, then the IV will go away too, in about.” She looked at the half -full IV bag. “Thirty minutes? Which will be just in time for physical therapy. Then Dr. Burns should be by to determine if you get discharged, hopefully before lunch.”

Mac nodded, and against his consent felt his eye closing his body slipping into sleep. When he awoke a bit later Jack was the one sitting in the wheelchair.

“What is with y’all and that thing?” Mac asked startling Jack who just about fell out of the seat.

“What? It’s comfy? Nice nap? Riley said that you were zonked out when she came back in.”

He attempted to scrunch his face to clear up his vision but only succeeded in making his face hurt more. Jen breezed in with a syringe. “Last pain meds before the IV comes out!” She announced. “I’ll be back in about ten minutes to get rid of the IV, and PT will be here soon.”

Jack was entertaining him with another one of his stories when Jen came back in, and quickly unhooked the IV. “So I have some bad news, PT is way back up, but the good news is that Dr. Burns can come and give you your discharge examine if you are ready to leave. A little birdy told me that PT would be handled at home, and you have a dedicated chauffeur until then.”

Mac shot Jack the best glare he could under the circumstances. Jack, however, looked unrepentant.

Dr. Burns came in right after that. “Good to finally see you awake Mr. MacGyver. I was your doctor.”

“Just call me Mac.”

“Ok,” He then looked over Mac’s chart. “Everything looks good. Let me take a look at your wounds, then hopefully we can get some discharge papers going.” After Dr. Burns got through poking and prodding he addressed Mac and Jack. “Everything seems to be healing nicely. I’ll get the discharge papers going, and you can be on your way in a few hours, make sure you follow the discharge instructions. Have a safe flight home.” He quickly left to visit the next patient.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back on the Phoenix jet almost three weeks after first getting there Mac found himself missing the children. Mrs. Byrne had brought him a pile of get well cards from the kids right before they left, and that touched him more that he wanted to admit. Benny had drawn sad faces and hearts all over his, Mac planned to put it on his dresser, but he was looking forward to being home where he could sleep in his own bed, and not hear Bozer snore all night. He looked down at where he had his leg propped up, and the cane Jack had gotten him, black with flames painted on it. ‘Hey man, as long as you have to have a cane, it might as well be a cool cane.’

Matty had let him know that while Marie and Mel weren’t off the hook completely they wouldn’t be going to jail, and Matty said that she might know someone who could use Marie’s skills. Mac was glad; they were both nice ladies who had gotten wrapped up in something much larger than themselves. Mac’s thoughts were interrupted by Bozer sitting down beside him on the couch. “I see you are back in the bullet hole, knife wound, shrapnel club, again”

Mac laughed, “I was starting to think you had forgotten.”

Bozer’s expression turned serious, “I never forget my bestie getting hurt. Anyways what I came to tell you is that Leanna, well…” Mac let Bozer’s voice wash over him as he fell asleep safe in the knowledge that he was almost home.

“Hey Bud, time to wake up.” Mac could hear someone talking to him. “We’re back in sunny LA, and the plane has landed.” Mac’s eyes slowly opened to see Jack staring at him.

“Back already?” He scrunched his eyebrows, then regretted it instantly as it ignited the left side of his face. The swelling had gone down more and he could now half see out of his left eye. Jack helped him put his right leg down and slowly helped him stand, which hurt more than Mac wanted to admit. He slowly made his way to the exit with Jack hovering right behind him.

“Alright, Bud, straight to Phoenix medical for you” Jack commented as Mac slowly descended to stairs.

As soon as he was on the tarmac Mac dead stopped. “Excuse me, I think you mean straight to my house.”

Jack thought for a second, “No, Matty’s ordered that you report straight to Med as soon as we get back.” Jack tried to nudge him along.

“No way. They will try to hook me up to everything again, and say I need to stay some ridiculous amount of time. The hospital back in Tennessee released me, so I’m good.” Mac made his glaze as steely as possible so that Jack knew he meant business. He glanced at Bozer and Riley who were already in the backseat of the Jeep just waiting for the last two passengers to climb in.

Jack sighed dramatically, “Fine, I’ll tell you what, I’ll call either Matty or Medical and they can assure us that they only want to give you a quick check- up and make sure the meds that the Tennessee doctors are ones that you do well with, ok? I don’t think they want to keep you any more than you want to stay. Heck, I’ll even make sure that either Dr. Feelgood or one of the other med types that you like is on duty.”

By this time Mac was getting too tired to fight anymore, “Fine, let’s just go. BUT if they want to keep me, you WILL help me escape.”

Jack grinned, “You got it, dude!”

True to his word Jack made sure that a couple of hours later Mac was back at his house and wanted to head out to the fire pit to wait for Bozer and Riley to get back with their takeout order.

“No way Bud.” Jack said as he crossed his arms standing resolute in front of the door to the porch.

“Come on, Jack.” Mac whined. “I just want to relax out there next to my fire-pit.”

“Ain’t happin.”

“Jack!”

“Mac!”

“Look, you got a stab wound in your leg, yesterday. So let’s give in a few days before you go climbing stairs, ok?” Jack gave Mac his best please so what I say face.

With a sigh Mac acquiesced. “Fine, I’ll go sit in the living room.” He was too tired to argue anymore, not that he cared to admit it. With a sigh he sat down on the couch carefully propping up his leg, and slumping over a bit as not to put pressure on his side, but also not putting any pressure on his shoulder. He was a mess. Listening to Jack ramble around the house Mac closed his eyes.

“Food’s here!” Bozer called as he brought their order into the living room. After passing out the food everybody dug in. Mac took a couple of bites thinking about all the events that had happened over the past forty-eight hours.

“How did Reaves know that we were agents?” Mac asked. He had thought about it and he didn’t remember if she had ever said.

Bozer frowned, “Didn’t we go over this on the plane?”

“I was resting my eyes.” Mac said as he took another bite.

Jack snorted a laugh. “Hoss when I do that you call it a siesta. Just say it, you was napping.”

Mac tried to hold back the eye-roll but couldn’t. Riley intervened, “Someone down at the police station said that the bank had told them that the Feds had been poking around. So of course SRO Dufus heard about it and told Reaves. She got suspicious when all of us appeared at around the same time, and had him run our backgrounds.” She smirked. “Of course they didn’t find anything, but….” Riley shrugged.

Rubbing the non bruised side of his face Mac said, “that’s not confusing at all!”

The group laughed. “But that’s not the craziest part” Riley added. “We got all this from gym teacher Nick. Apparently it is true love between SRO Dufus and Reaves!”

Shaking his head Mac took a sip of his water. “As riveting as this is, I’m going to head to bed. Night.” No sooner had he finished than a jaw popping yawn escaped. Jack started to get up to lend Mac a hand. “I’ve got it.”

It was Jack’s turn to roll his eyes. He got up and easily helped Mac stand up. “See brother, it’s easier to accept the help.”

Slowly the two of them limped down the hallway to Mac’s bedroom. Jack took up his usual spot beside the door while Mac used the bathroom and get ready for bed. With a sigh he accepted Jack’s help into bed. “Thanks.”

Jack smiled down at his friend, “don’t mention it. Night.” With that Jack left pulling the door almost to.

“Night.” Mac whispered back as he drifted off to sleep happy to be back in the comforts of his own bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all she wrote folks! I would love to hear your thoughts (even if it's just to tell me that you had it all figured out by ch 1, lol). Time for me to shamelessly promote my next story! It is set in my Teacher AU (where after the military Mac & Jack decide to become teachers) Jack carries Mac home to meet his family after they are discharged! I hope to get in up in the next two weeks after I get it back from the beta!
> 
> As an additional preview to thank you for your dedication, I have another Teacher AU short finished, another story that brings peril to a team member very near and dear to us, and I am currently working on a sequel to my Supernatural + MacGyver crossover! Love y'all!

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so this Wednesday will be my 1 year MacGyver ficaversary (that's totally a thing right? lol) So to celebrate I will start posting another story of mine that I just finished, "There to Back you up." The summary: When Mac is injured with people after him he puts his life in the hands of a stranger. I hope you'll take the time to check it out also! Thanks!


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